Rivington Pike - Half Marathon

Whilst in Manchester recently, we thought it would be a good idea to see if we could find a race to allow us to keep up with the training schedule for Dublin Marathon. The Rivington Pike half seemed a good idea, a hard hlaf marathon with a few hills sounded ideal.

The race itself was in fact a nightmare...right from the start, we had 2k of climbing to contend with, and not just a gentle slope either. This ensured that my HR was through the roof by the time that I got to the top and what followed did nothing to alleviate the situation - think Roman cobbled road not maintained for hundreds of years. The fear of braking an ankle ensured that there was not going to be much making up time on the downhill.

The following 10 miles pretty just continued in the same theme, don't get me wrong, some great scenery but all of it perhaps more enjoyable when the HR is not running at 180 - and that's before you see a bank of 50 steps heading to the clouds in front of you. 

Anyway, very hard race with my worst ever half time of 1:48...dreadful really but it was a hard day.