# Liverpool Rock 'n' Roll running weekend.



## Chris Hobson (May 26, 2019)

The Liverpool Rock 'n' Roll running weekend is an event that features live music all around the courses. There is a 5k run on the Saturday. Then on the Sunday there is a half marathon, a full marathon and then a 1 mile run if you are still up for it. The medals are handed out like confetti and you get one for each event that you take part in, a medal for doing more than one event on the weekend and another one if you attend two consecutive years. This means that Liz, Jill and myself came away with twelve medals in total. One thing that you do notice about Liverpool is that, although the Beatles came from there, they don't like to make too much of a thing about it.

I thought that injuring your back while doing the grouting was just a worn out sitcom joke. In fact, it isn't the grouting itself that does the damage but scraping off the residue and then polishing the tiles with a dry cloth. This requires a great deal of elbow grease and, with the tiles being in the area behind the kitchen tops, it all has to be done in an awkward bent over position. This is how I ended up with a really sore back just a week before I was due to run a 5k and a half marathon. I was also getting some nasty twinges in my left knee and, since I had spent all of my free time over the previous month or so rebuilding my kitchen, I had done no training at all since the London Marathon. I suspect that the knee problem was down to doing a lot of kneeling while assembling flat packs and stuff. Altogether it was not looking very promising and I was expecting that I would probably have to withdraw from the half marathon at least. I thought that, no matter how bad things were, I could walk the 5k if necessary.

I took the day off work so that we could travel on the Friday and spent the morning giving the car a long overdue clean. This did leave me having to gather my stuff together in a bit of a hurry meaning that I forgot a few things. Cable for charging GPS watches, magnetic buttons for fixing race numbers, energy drink powder, and Cliff Blocks and even my running shoes. Fortunately I realised that I had forgotten the shoes a couple of miles down the road and went back for them. Most of the other stuff I got at the running expo, my watch had a full charge and survived the weekend, Liz's watch died on Sunday evening. We stopped off to pick up Liz's sister Jill and had an uneventful drive to Liverpool. We checked into a Travelodge that was about a half mile walk from the venue. This Travelodge didn't do breakfasts so we had our own supply of cereals and instant porridge. We also have a coolbox that has a tiny refrigeration unit built in to the lid. This plugs into the lighter socket in the boot of the car and can be used with a mains adapter once in the hotel. By this time I was feeling a bit more optimistic about being able to run, my back had been gradually recovering during the week and my knee wasn't troubling me too much. I decided that the best plan was to do the 5k on Saturday and then make a decision about the half marathon on Sunday based on how it went. We walked down to the exhibition centre to check in and get our race numbers and then had a look around the expo. There were lots and lots of stalls selling the usual merch for runners and lots of women with fantastically well toned bottoms. I shopped around and bought some little sachets of energy drink powder and some nutrition balls which looked a bit like malteasers but were chewy and had protein and energy and stuff in. I got some race number buttons but they were the ones that attach like press studs rather than magnets. These had smiley faces on so that was good. I also picked up a tri suit, a Rock 'n' Roll Liverpool mug and a Yellow Submarine beer glass.

Saturday morning was fine and bright and we trooped off down to the start line for the 5k. We all had a little number on our bib which denoted which pen we would be corralled into. These were supposedly based on our expected finish times but lots of people seemed to think that they had been allocated the wrong pen and that the numbers had been put on at random. At the time that we put our entries in, I had been running 5k in around 21 minutes so I was placed quite near the front. Given my present slightly sorry state, I placed myself a couple of pens further back. I think that I got it about right as I was reasonably on pace with the runners around me. Once my group was moved up to the start we were treated to a DJ urging us to get all exited about it all and wave our hands in the air. The race bibs have your name on so I was immediately pounced on by said DJ for not joining in, “Come on Christopher, get your hands in the air” Liz and Jill were both in a pen further back and I later learned that both of them knew straight away who he was referring to. I know that I'm a grumpy old git but the DJ getting everyone to be so exited about how exiting it all is, and how exited we all are to be so exited about it, is always a bit of a trial for me. He did play a block of Rolling Stones songs while we were waiting so maybe I can cut him a bit of slack. You don't suppose that he was confused about which really big sixties band it was that came from Liverpool do you? Anyway, we got underway and I did the 5k without mishaps or any hassle from my back or knee with a finish time of 25:34, so I decided that I was probably on for the half marathon on Sunday. Liz had an incident when a dozy pillock crashed into her having wandered into the path of hundreds of runners while staring at his phone. Lets hope that the next time he does it he won't step into the path of an eighteen wheeler. We then headed back to the hotel to get showered so that we could meet up and go somewhere for dinner. In our infinite wisdom we decided that it would be a great idea to walk back down the riverside rather than the main road. The problem was that there was a high metal fence that ran for miles along the river bank and so, although we could see the hotel there was no way that we could get to it. This meant that we had to walk all the way back and go by the main road anyway. As a result of all this, my baldy head got slightly sunburned as I hadn't put any suncream on, not expecting to be out in the sun for quite so long.

Up bright and early on Sunday morning and outside it is raining. We checked the weather on our phones and were helpfully informed that it wasn't raining. The forecast turned out to be for light showers all day and this proved to be pretty accurate. What rain that occurred was very light and intermittent and not really a problem. It was a little windy too but this was only noticeable on the final stretch of the run along the river bank. We got to the venue in good time but the lengthy queues for the bogs meant that we were cutting it a bit fine getting to our respective start pens. Once we got under way I found myself just a little off the pace with a trickle of other runners passing me. Still, my 1k splits were pretty consistently just either side of six minutes so I was on for somewhere near two hours if I could keep it up. I passed a couple of live bands doing stuff that I didn't recognise before approaching the Beatles tribute band who were doing 'From Me To You' which was a hit that I actually remember from when I was five years old. They then started 'In My Life' which is one of my favourite Beatles songs. Quite a few of the runners had earphones on which I found pretty baffling considering the nature of this particular event. I also passed a woman who was texting as she was running along. Live stuff that I did recognise included Strange Brew by Cream, lead guitar was doing some brilliant Claptonesque stuff as I ran past and I gave him a personal round of applause. I sang my usual rendition of 'Put Another Log On The Fire' and was surprised to hear a lady who also knew the song joining in. The course is fairly flat but there is one fairly long hill. I commented loudly that this was a hill and I wonder if there is a fool on the top of it. Just like last year, nobody got the joke. On the way toward the half way point at Penny Lane I passed a band playing Basket Case by Greenday which I sang along with, and then a band playing one of those rather predictable blues songs that I sang along with as it was bloody obvious what the next line would be. At the drink station just after Penny Lane I stopped briefly to down some of my protein energy balls as I had forgotten to take them every two miles as I had intended to do. As usual, near the halfway point I lead a feeble sing song of Living on a Prayer. We ran by a girl with a guitar who was singing Jolene which is one of the very few songs that I really bloody hate. We went under a bridge so I sang 'Under The Bridge' and another runner joined in and we sang a duet. It turned out that he was a big Chilli Peppers fan and even had a RHCP tattoo. The last part of the run goes along the bank of the Mersey and the wind was right into our faces. In the past, on the last couple of miles, I would be putting the hammer down, working my way up the pecking order and hoping to set another PB. Today I was just plodding on with nothing much left in the tank. Not in as much pain as I was at the end of the London Marathon but totally unable to up the pace and just hanging on for the finish. Still, I passed quite a few people who were walking, that made me feel just a little smug. Finish time, according to my watch was 2:09:12 which, considering injuries and complete lack of preparation, isn't too bad really. We learned that there was a runner who had done all four events on the weekend. I don't know how many medals you get for that but he must have had to hire a container truck to take them all home.

We then stayed another night and then headed home. We stopped off at a fabric and craft shop that Jill was keen to visit and I came away with a kit to build a wall clock. On the way home it rained a lot and some of the showers were really heavy and I had to put the wipers on full speed.



The next challenge is the Endure 24 at the end of June and I really need to get my finger out and do some training this time.


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## Grannylorraine (May 27, 2019)

Well done to you and your wife Chris.  I really admire that you travel all over the country to attend these events.  I wish I was confident enough to sign up to events as I can consistently run 10k now and would like to push on but the fear of everyone packing up and leaving before I have finished really puts me off as my pace if high 9s per km.


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## Chris Hobson (May 27, 2019)

The Jane Tomlinson 10k runs are a good place to start. There is always a large field and hence a wide range of abilities. With a time in the region of ninety minutes I very much doubt that you would be anywhere near the back. The bigger events generate a great atmosphere and everyone tends to be very encouraging.


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## Northerner (May 27, 2019)

Grannylorraine said:


> Well done to you and your wife Chris.  I really admire that you travel all over the country to attend these events.  I wish I was confident enough to sign up to events as I can consistently run 10k now and would like to push on but the fear of everyone packing up and leaving before I have finished really puts me off as my pace if high 9s per km.


You can often find tables of results of past events that will show you the sorts of times people finished in, so you can gauge whereabouts you might fit with your pace  Larger events tend to have a bigger spread of abilities and better organisation (with the exception of this years' London, it seems).


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## Chris Hobson (May 27, 2019)

"You can often find tables of results of past events that will show you the sorts of times people finished in, so you can gauge whereabouts you might fit with your pace"

I did that when I was considering entering the Outlaw. I was encouraged to see that there were some who finished just inside the seventeen hour cut off and I was pretty sure that I could do better than that.


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