When you think of Blackpool in Mid February I would imagine the words "Sunshine" "Warm" and "Little Breeze" would not be first on your mind, but after a few years of reports of terrible weather, I was pleasently surprised to see that the afore mentioned words were actuall what we had. A glorious day by the seaside and a superbly well organised half marathon to make the day even more special.

I was part of the Fylde Coast Runners pace team for the event, so my registration was done for me, I just had to collect my race pack and pacer shirt from the registration tent along with the other 1300 or so runners on the day, and this was easily done.

Superb communiaction from the race organisors on Social Media kept everybody informed as to what to do on the day, even giving regular weather updates during the week before the race.

We found car parking on a road alongside the prominade and it was just a short walk to the start/registartion area from there. Plenty of toilets were on hand and a coffee stall to keep you warm in the early morning chill before the sun started to warm us up.

The start area was well set out with zones clearly marked for runners to line up along with their pacer at their predicted finish times. I was on 2hr 15m pace duties and took up my position and was joined by an eager and happy group, most of whom stayed with me all the way around (Including Elvis!!)

The excitement on the startline was built up further by a very bubbly commentator, and the race set off on time and headed off North, along the middle walkway of the prom in the direction of the North Pier, here we turned right and moved down to the lower walkway and headed back towards the start, before once again moving up on to the middle walkway to complete a second loop again passing back through the start. after these two "short" loops which took us to about 3 miles into the race, we coninued along the lower prom to complete two longer loops of the route further down the shore before coming back to the finish which was alongside the startline.

The route was almost entirely flat, with just a few very small little inclines up from the lower to middle walkways, and gave some lovely views out over the surprisngly calm sea. 

Decent local support on the route cheered everybody on, and marshalls were helpful and supportive all the way round. 

4 water stations on the course handed out bottles of water, screwtop bottles which had already had the tops removed, and I was happy to see that discarded bottles were quickly collected and bagged to make sure they did not find their way onto the beach and out to sea.

With the course being completly offroad and on the prom, there was no problem at all with safety issues from cars, although a few ignorant cyclists weaving in ond out of runners as they sped down the path as if they were in the Tour de France, was a little concerning.

A lovely downhill final half mile brought us back into the finish chute, and the welcome of the course commentator again (she was great) before you collected a stylish tech t shirt, water, banana and a chocolate bar along with one of the biggest and heaviest medals I have ever seen, great value!

I Really enjoyed this race, and although it was a long trip up for us from Wiltshire to take part, I hope that I can be invited back to the pace team again for next years 30th Anniversary staging of the Great North West Half Marathon, maybe see Elvis again!!