Great Cumbrian Half Marathon 2011: Report & Results

The Boys Are Back In Town

DD & Mr Moir’s Great Cumbrian Half Marathon 2-10-2011

Eclectic, Individualistic, Unique, Unusual; all words that can be used to describe DD’s musical taste. In fact when I heard Brian Scott was off to see Disney on Ice, I assumed he’d be taking DD with him (you are taking children with you Brian? But hey if not, each to their own!!). It came as quite a pleasant surprise having shared car time with DD on many occasions previously to hear that we wouldn’t be regaled by King Louis professing to be the King of the swingers, or Thomas O’Malley telling us we all want to be cats, but Phil Lynott and the rest of Dublin’s finest Thin Lizzy to gear us up towards a half marathon fast time. This did go slightly down hill when the DD mix tape descended into other classics like Crocodile Rock, but thankfully we had reached Carlisle by then.

We’d both ran this race in 2010 so knew what was in store but for some reason my recollection was of a much flatter course? We set off with race plans in hand, and pretty soon I realised we may struggle to stick to it. I remembered the first 3 miles were a bit up and down so had allowed for that, but was intending to make time up on mile 4. DD & I set off together and at the 3 mile marker I was ready to push on, but someone (it must have been the council or someone) had put 2 large climbs into mile 4. This resulted in more lost time and another slow mile. DD had a bit of a wobble at mile 4 and stepped off the course. I was running with a lad from York Postal (Bill Shivley) who asked what the matter was. I told him not to worry as DD would be back in a few miles looking fresh as a daisy just to spoil our races (and he did!!) The next few miles were OK (council couldn’t stretch to new hills on that section) and after that it was fairly undulating, I was pulling away from Bob from York on the uphills but he kept pulling me back and getting ahead on the flat. We did this upto mile 8 when DD decided to join us again and then cruised past making it look easy. I kept DD in my sights and felt OK. At mile 11 there is a final hill but I felt strong for the last 3 miles and just pushed on, passing a few other runners particularly in the last mile.

End result
DD 15th Gun Time 1:21:37 Chip time 1:21:35
DM 18th Gun time 1:22:31 Chip time 1:22:28 PB by 2 seconds

Although we’ve both done this race (mostly on a much flatter course a few years back) it’s a little too hilly for a decent PB. Working all year for 2 seconds isn’t quite what I had in mind, so I may be looking at other half marathons next year. It is a well organised event, has a big event feel (with nearly 1200 runners in it) without being too busy, but that might be my last appearance for a few years now.

Full results HERE

Dave Moir