Well what a weekend again, I feel totally shattered!
The first thing I want to mention is the weather. Not the wonderful sunshine and temperatures we had last March but considering all the rain before the event and on Saturday night I’m just thankful during the races the weather was calm and dry.
The Gin Pit Double Marathon is now in its third year and what started as a one off “experiment” seems to be turning into a regular annual event. The event hit the entry limit well before Christmas. It attracted endurance athletes from across the country. There were a mix of Iron men and 100 marathon club members, as well as other ultra and multiple marathon runners. From a personal perspective it was nice to welcome to the Gin Pit some friends I’ve made from running the Windermere marathon and who are fellow 10 in 10 runners. We were also joined by runners from more local clubs, including Horwich, Helsby and Spectrum Striders.
On the race weekend we had 37 runners on the Saturday & 33 runners on the Sunday, with 23 of them completing both days. Superb performances from the winner Phil Eccleston (from Horwich) completing the 2 days in 6 hours 28 minutes and 50 seconds and Caroline Hemming (from Glazebrook) for the ladies in 7 hours 36 minutes and 53 seconds. No new course records this year but maybe next year. Great effort from all the runners whether they completed 1 or both days.
On the Saturday only myself represented Astley & Tyldesley Road Runners but on the Sunday Steve Coleman joined me for support. Steve finished in an impressive 3 hours 17 minutes 27 seconds, not bad considering the muddy conditions. I finished the 2 days in a consistent 7 hours 15 minutes 1 second.
My thanks go out to…
Yuk-Lam, for letting me arrange the event, purchasing all the refreshments and setting up the kitchen, manning the registration, holding the fort at the Gin Pit, timekeeping and looking after the kids while I ran it!
Anita and my Dad, for time keeping.
The team manning the water stations were John Morton, Craig, Derek, Jon Hyde, Jason, Joan, Terry, Kim, John Bradley , my brother Paul and Dave.
The marshals, Anita, Terry & Carol.
Cath for helping at the finish.
My mum and sister-in-law Han May for manning the refreshments.
My dad Bill, for helping me put up the signs.
Spencer, for cycling the course early on the Sunday morning before the start of the second day to make sure there were no last minute problems and for making me laugh with all the mud on his face!
Martin, Cath and Mark, for the photos.
Jackie, for getting the 630 bottles of water.
Pat & Joe at the Welfare club, for letting us use their facilities.
Claphams of Leigh for the great pasties!
And everyone else that came down to support.
Many of the runners have emailed or Facebooked me saying how much they have enjoyed the event and to pass on their thanks to all the helpers.
I’ve totted up how much we have raised and I’m pleased to say it’s £1,478.56. The money will be going to the Brathay Trust from Ambleside on the bank of Lake Windermere to help them with the great work they do with disadvantaged young people from our inner cities and running Wigan Council’s Low Bank Ground Centre in Coniston, where many of our local children go on outward bound courses from their schools.
Once again the runners all seemed to have enjoyed the event and have given very positive feedback, to such an extent that some have already decided they want to come back again next year. So it looks like I’ll be doing it all over again in 2014!
