Great Cumbrian Run Half-Marathon

Well done GA. You should be proud of your self. The new route was much harder than previous. 'Testing' is being polite! And to attempt that course as your first half. Bliddy well done. Apparently Redcar is as flat as a flat thing. Go for it! 

Luke Smith 10 wrote (see)

Unfortunately my knee is now not too great. Was fine during the race but now hurts when I walk- so I’m hobbling quite badly. How long would people advise giving it to see if it clears it up before going to a doctor?

If it was fine during the race I wouldn't think there's anything to worry about. It's probably just protesting at the extra strain. Mine were fine too yesterday but both are now quite stiff. That's what normally happens with me after a long race.

I'd give it a few days and if it's still painful see a doctor (or spend a few quid on a physio - probably more use with these sort of things).

The official results are up:

http://www.winningtimeuk.com/index.php?page=dbsearch

(My link facility isn't working for some reason)

Cheers Rob

Just checked my chip time and it was actually 2:22:00 dead on, so not far off my watch.

Thanks Rob - I'd been watching out for them but hadn't spotted they were there.

Chip time same as my watch to the second, which is nice. And 19th out of 32 in my age category (M60). I'd settle for that as there are some incredibly good oldies out there.

God, you guys are quick off the mark. I've only just pulled the results together and put them up on the website and you're already there!!!

See: http://www.winningtimeuk.com/index.php?page=results&event=52

There is also a downloadable PDF on the Great Cumbrian Run website at: http://www.greatcumbrianrun.org/

Thanks morph. It's useful having the PDF as well as the winningtimeuk results.

sore legs today, guys!

wish I was running that again instead of being at work

thanks for the results

Millsy; I didn't get my act together last week and hence missed the legendry tree meet up, but hello anyhoo. When will you be back running again?? I am down to do derwent water 15k and brampton to carlisle- I assume you've done brampton to carlisle..........hope your injury gets better, top effort for coming to support though

Mike T- just a great thank you! I didn't find anything to complain about and thoroughly enjoyed the day. you are a star

ah weeell better do some work I s'pose

lets bask in our glory today guys

Siobhan

well im very pleased with my time, just a pitty it was 1/2 hour behind an old school mate,

well done every one, and the organisers- i could not find a fault, appart from............. seriously not a problem in my eyes. im sure they could make a living if they decided to do it full time. 

does anyone know of when any pictures are going to be posted, i know there was the 'official' photographer and there was another person who said he would be putting them up on the internet.

 it would be quite nice as i do not have any decent pictures of me running and i need one to go on the dart board

XT...the official race photographer was DE Photos. I have had a look on their site and the photos havent been put on there yet. I would keep checking over the next couple of days

Anyone know why there are only around 1400 times on the site? I thought there were 1800+ people running?

Luke Smith 10 wrote (see)

Anyone know why there are only around 1400 times on the site? I thought there were 1800+ people running?

People not turning up I would guess. There was a bit of discussion about this on the GNR thread. I think the conclusion there was that maybe 35,000 of the 50,000+ entries actually started. So 1400 out of 1800 in our race would be in the same ball-park.

Hello all,

Weren't we lucky with the weather then? My word, we were! Given the forecasts that we'd had, the weather was incredibly kind to us!! The wind seemed to get up more strongly around 1pm, whipping up the leaves, and then as we travelled south through the Lakes during the afternoon, the rain was just horrible and the car was buffeted by the wind!! It could have been so much worse than it was!!

Well, it was certainly "undulating" wasn't it? I'm glad it wasn't just me who found the new course to be something of a challenge! Going on the pre-race comments from the forum, I'd tried to mentally prepare myself for a few slight inclines and had even built some into the very few training runs I'd done. But I wasn't really anticipating what we got! Now I know that compared to some "hilly" courses, this one would have been extremely mild...but when you're someone like me who tries to sniff out half marathons by virtue of their flatness....it came as a bit of a shock!!

The day had started off badly anyway.....after only getting to bed at 1am as previously posted, we then proceded to oversleep and woke at 8am! I must have been so knackered that I hadn't knowingly heard my alarm!! Panic stations ensued and Plan B swiftly kicked into action...also known as me getting my arse out of the travel lodge as quickly as I could without waking the sleeping family!! One taxi ride to the Sheepmount later to drop off my bag and an unplanned "warm up" jog across to the castle saw me arrive just as the swarms of runners were exiting the castle - immaculate timing I thought - economy of effort or what? Sorry to those who did get to meet up at the "Tree of Life" - not too many by the sounds of it -  but that's why I wasn't there!

I scurried past the outgoing runners and made my way to the back of the pack inside the castle for all of about 30 secs before back marker me also exited the castle. From the off I didn't feel too good - I had the same full feeling as Rob described, although I think mine might have been more to do with not long having finished my hastily wolfed breakfast after getting up late. I didn't much enjoy the first two miles - partly cos of this full feeling and also cos I was struggling with my breathing and felt as if I couldn't get enough air into my lungs. Once we'd turned left off the main road on to a quiet country lane, mile 2-3 was much better - it was much calmer and I had chance to settle down into a bit of a rhythm before the first water station. Mile 3-4 however was much worse! The first climb came along and I struggled up that but just as I got to the fringe of the motorway bridge, the next swine of a hill honed into view! It's a good job there was nobody near me at the time because some expletives were uttered rather audibly from my mouth!! I have to say that from that point on I adopted the philosophy of walk up the big uns and run the rest!! Given the speed at which I was running anyway, it would have been debateable if I actually lost any time on the uphills but it almost certainly did save on unproductive effort!!

From 5 miles on, I didn't even bother to look at my watch because time was totally irrelevant. So much so that I noticed at about 4.30pm that my stopwatch was still running............thankfully I wasn't!! I just decided to enjoy the rest of the race as best I could and that's what I did. It's funny how once you've relieved yourself of any self imposed expectation, you can then go on to derive pleasure from what is left of the event!  I actually enjoyed going through some beautiful Cumbrian villages on the fringes of Carlisle and just taking in the scenery and atmosphere. I engaged in some pleasant banter with Stewards, supporters and other competitors and it made for a pleasant experience - after all - events like this are not just about running fast times are they? (You would expect a comment like that from a snail though wouldn't you?)After 9 miles, Mrs Boycs phoned to say her and the little uns were leaving the travel lodge and going to park at the Sands Centre and they would try to see me at the finish. The bizarre thing then was that when I got to around 10 miles, not only did I find myself going past the travel lodge where I'd spent the night before, but to my complete amazement, I could see Mrs Boycs just putting the kids into the car!! This was far too good an opportunity to miss, so I hot footed it across the road to say hello and get a kiss off them all before continuing, somewhat buoyed up, on my weary way. Mrs Boycs offered me a lift to the Sands Centre and because I was feeling pretty crap by then, I was SO sorely tempted to say yes - but I declined!! To have done so would have been dishonest - and as SM knows - that's not me! The bit past CUFC was as quiet as a graveyard (bit like match day eh Millsy)  and there was a poor lonely lady Steward there who looked so fed up and so I thanked her for giving up her Sunday morning for us, which instantly brought a smile to her face!! From there it was into pleasant Rickerby Park (funny comment from Miami earlier). Enjoyed it through the park but strolled the hill at the exit, then ran to the finish - superb timing yet again because Mrs Boycs and kids had just arrived to see me finish!! As I came past the Sheepmount Stadium, I saw the familiar smiling face of Mick who wished me well and shook hands as I went past. Mick - you're ever the gent aren't you - "Boycs gliding past" was how you phrased it - I'd have been more inclined to say shuffled / staggered past!! Another great time Mick!And Millsy - from one stalwart of the GCR to another - I was really sorry not to have seen you too mate! That said, there is a limit to how long I could have reasonably expected you to have waited around at the end. As for the Windermere marathon...if I couldn't hack these hills...I wouldn't have an earthly chance with proper ones over double the distance! Polite decline is the best policy here me thinks!!

BIG thanks have to go to Mike and the team for hosting another successful GCR. It is very evident that events like this do not just organise themselves so thanks for all of the hard work and effort you put in to make events like this possible for us to participate in. The stewards were generally very supportive (one blonde lady Steward was particularly enthusiastic and popped up at 3 different parts of the course!) As ever, Mike has picked up on various facets of feedback which he will endeavour to change for next year - which is to his enormous credit! At the risk of being out of step with most other correspondents, I have to say that I was not the biggest fan of this course and that I much, much prefer the route that we have taken for the previous 3 years. The slightly later start time from previous years was also preferable for my folks who had to hang around at the travel lodge for most of the morning as there were few alternatives for them had they accompanied me to the start. I do not mean for these points to sound like they are gripes - because that is certainly not how they are intended. They are purely observations from an old hand of the GCR!I ended up recording a new PW for myself (+10 mins on last year), but I had anticipated this because I'd only done 3 training runs of 4.5 mls, 7 mls and 10 mls in preparation for this years GCR. Indeed, these were the first runs I'd done for 3 months previous!!! So if ever you hear of anyone else who tries to do a half marathon on so little preparation...do them a favour....tell them from me not to be so damn foolish!! On the plus side, it has meant that I've done a minimum of one HM a year for the past 4 years and it helps to keep the blief going that I can still get around! As I said before the race, completion was my only goal for this year and so from that perspective alone, it was job done! But to reiterate GA's earlier comments, I'm seriously impressed with some of the brilliant times that others have recorded - well done!!!! And finally....having checked the results so kindly provided by morph....it would appear that I have had a gender realignment in mid-race! It's no wonder I couldn't catch my breath for long enough!!!!

Millsy you will be delighted to know that I got a PB anyway on this race.
I will bore you with the details later.
Nice to see you buddy and also Morgs, MicktMacem , and XB.
Sorry it wasn`t me at 5 miles Miami but I hope u dint upset that bloke about his helmet.
For what it`s worth I will give my opinion of the race later when I have had time to come back to earth.
Millsy you were a nice lad and kind to my wife.......now you spoilt the pleasure I used to get from slagging you off (but I will try my best to keep up the tradition anywayz)
Boycs....phew!...what time did you do?

Boycs, if you are listed incorrectly then please drop me a line via the Winning Time UK site at http://www.winningtimeuk.com/.

And if you know anyone that is not listed on the results, please ask them to confirm that they wore their chip around the ankle. If they wore the chip around the wrist then all bets are off. Anybody that got a chip from me in the Sands Centre on Saturday would have been told that the chip must be worn around the ankle.

And anybody laughing at the cheesy "cha-cha" dance on the start mats with the girl from CFM Radio - that was me.

Boycs - It could only happen to you!  I was a bit worrried when I didn't see you that something had gone wrong...................................but not that much.  Had you been on time, I'm sure you would have made the tree, being somewhat more intelligent than some we could mention.  Anyway, it sounds as though you enjoyed yourself although I am a bit concerned about some of your concerns.  Please come back next year.  It wouldn't be the same without you.

SM - Good to see that you got back safely.  Sorry about being a 'nice lad and kind to my wife'.  Took some bliddy effort to keep that up for so long believe me, but I'm back to normal now so please feel free to start throwing the verbals again.  This thread couldn't cope with you being 'nice' as well!!  Hope you enjoyed your ale last night.  When I saw the state of the weather late afternoon I wasn't too disappointed that you had obviously opted for Plan B, but don't worry the beer can wait until Windermere.

Siobhan - I would normally do the Brampton to Carlisle - it's a cracker, but I think it might just come a few weeks too early for me.  My ankle feels a bit better today but I would guess it could be another couple of weeks before I can risk it again and that wouldn't leave much time before the race.  Roll on next year. 

'being somewhat more intelligent than some we could mention'...and who might you be referring to there then Millsy

The goody bag was naff.
And the tee shirt was a nice quality garment.....but no GCR logo?
Apart from that it was a brilliant well organised and well supported event.
Even some of the queueing motorists cheered us on (which spoilt it a bit for me as I usually like to see their stressed up angry faces)

A couple of undulations made for a bit more interesting run and the scenery was varied urban and rural....it was a good do and the people of Carlisle proved once again that northerners are most welcoming and friendly.
Millsy in the excitement I forgot to give you that fiver so we will let it ride till next year double or quits (by then we will have established a mutually acceptable handicap)and I will book in at the Premier Inn Hotel in Carlisle so we can definitely have that pint.

I told you I pulled my tripes out dint I?......well I got 1:52:04 compared to my previous PB achieved exactly one year ago on a FLAT Lancaster course of 1:52:56.......and as you so gleefully proclaim I am no spring chicken so there is hope for us all ha ha haa!.....SM is on the up.

Some of you were asking about numbers of finishers compared to numbers of entries and so did I in a couple of previous races.......apparently it is not unusual in a big race for a couple or more hundred people not to turn up.....YOU COWARDS! But there is no shame in taking it on and not being able to finish............. YOU WILL DO IT NEXT TIME GUYS!

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR SM!........and we WILL meet at Millsy`s tree!!!