The Great Cumbrian Run Half-Marathon

Good to know your going for it Millster. What you aiming for this year ? If it's within reach of my meagre ability I may try and tag on the back of you. Hope the horse from the Brampton to Carlisle doesn't make an appearance !!

Have you heard a date mentioned for the brampton to carlisle this year ??

If it's the 3rd Satrurday in November I'm out of it because I entered the Bill Barker 10k that was supposed to be in August but they changed the date to November 20th so as I've paid I'll be doing that. I just hope the organisers have the good sense to speak to each other otherwise they will both suffer.

I did the GCR in just over 01:45 last year and really want to duck under that benchmark this time but we'll see how it goes. I have the Blackpool Hilton 10k at the start of Sept so that should be a good test for the GCR. Are you doin that ?

How's everybodys training going then?

I wont be racing the GCR this year as i'm doing the Liverpool marathon the week after, but I never miss it as its my local race & is always a great event so I'll be jogging round at an easy pace!

I'm pretty certain that the Brampton to Carlisle is on the 19th Nov this year.

I'm doing with my wife who's from Penrith originally. We're driving up from London on the Friday beforehand. Looks to me like a fairly quick course

Don't worry Millster I'm still in. Did 12.5 on Saturday on some of the route. Those hills up to Cumwhinton are a killer ! I got to them about 9 miles into my run and am glad they coume early on the day.

Not sure if sub 1:45 is in me but sub 1:50 should be within reach (will now look a bit silly if I'm over that !)

I spoke to the Sands Ctr today and they reckon we should get some instructions in the  post this week. Number collection at the Sands the day before or the morning of the race.

Gonna do a couple of quickish 8's this week and 10.5 at the weekend then next week an 8 and a 6 then 2 days rest before the day .

When I get my number on the Saturday I'll try and remember to put it on here. It would be nice to bump into a few "forumers" at the castle

Think I might do this as well as Brampton to Carlisle.  I heard all about the horse last year - think I was too slow to see it. 

Would this be a bad idea 2 weeks before a marathon?

Which marathon you doing Ian?

You would be best doing the race at a steady pace & treating it as a traiing run (say 40-60secs slower than your marathon pace) then adding on 3-4 miles when you finish

Anything much faster will have an impact on your marathon!

Tom,

My post above covers the numbers thing. They say letters should go out this week with instructions and number collection is at the Sands Centre the day before or the morning of the race.

 i'm doing it!

2nd time

This will be my 4th GCR. Last time was in 2008 which is the only time I've run it on this course. After a flat first mile, there are a few longish drags until about the 5 mile point but nothing too steep. The only nasty hill from what I can remember is the little one at around 11 miles coming out of the park - short but sharp! I reckon it's a pretty fast course though - I got a PB last time.

Really looking forward to this one.

Ran it in 2005 and 2006, but had to  pull out of '07 (and the Amsterdam half that year) due to injury.
I haven't run a half marathon since, for a number of reasons, so I'm very excited about this comeback.

Postman brought my number today 295. Bring it on.

I hope everyone's training is going well.