I headed down to Sefton Park for the race around 18:45, thinking I’d saunter up to the registration then bang out a slow lap of the Park with some sprints. I obviously under estimated lethal combination of Mossley Hill Athletics promotional drive and the pulling power of the great Victorian Park! I hadn’t seen queues this big in the Park since the lovely Annabella Lwin from Bow Wow Wow was dishing out autographs by the Eros Statue prior to a legendary Lark in the Parks gig in 1982.

I got my number sorted around 19:15, queuing with an old mate Gerard Lenehan who’s been running really well recently and waxing lyrical with other punters on the merits of the Princes Park run. Luckily for my warm up, the race was delayed until 19:45 so I had 30 mins to prepare. After a jog and a few short sprints I ran back to the start to find it had been delayed another 15mins. Looking around at the runners gathered it looked a good field but my main concern was with the delay Richie’s curry might get burnt! He’ kindly layed on an after race a spread on for PLS in Aigburth Peoples Hall :o)

The race eventually got underway, my plan was to run 5:40 pace and hang on as long as I could. The course is a rolling one, two laps in a figure of eight with gradual climbs, I was in a small group for the 1st mile which I passed through in 5:43. The field stretched out on the slight downhill second mile which I passed through in 5:39 but by now I was on my own. I hit 5k in 17:51 but was struggling to get the pace down. Once I hit the down slope for the 2nd time around 3 ½ miles in, I kicked on but was caught by a group of around 5 runner near the 4 mile mark.

They passed me but I clung on up to the narrow path with over 1k to go. Looking back I should have stayed ahead of them because two of them dropped the pace and I didn’t really have anywhere to overtake for a good 100 metres and by then the other lads in front, including the ever young Chris Pedder, had moved around 10 secs infront. I put my foot down and managed to finish in 29:17 – if that’s official it will be a PB by 1 second.

I’m happy to (hopefully) get a PB. The race felt tough in parts but I know I beat a few runners who are in good form and have been hitting better PB’s at all distances than mine. Martin Swensson is getting better, he ran around 26:48, a massive PB for him and I know quite a few more Striders also excelled. Chester and Christleton were two race when I’ve felt the strongest this year – they were 13 and 17 weeks into Marathon training so to be getting a PB on this course 9 weeks in, I feel confident I’m getting back to that sort of form.

The night finished with a slap up spread in the APH, the curry didn’t burn and the few guinness I washed it with tasted good!