Travelled to Liverpool by car and headed for the Mount Pleasant car park which opened at 9am just an hour before the race. Plenty of time I thought but with the road closures and then a large queue to get into the car park that hour that i expected for warming up etc.. soon got reduced to 30 minutes. Think it would have been nice if the car park had been allowed to open an hour earlier.

Still it wasn't to far to walk to the start area which was outside the iconic metropolitan church. Very nice! the start are was just around the corner from this opposite the Everyman theatre.

Toilets and baggage area were at the back of the runners funnel. Plenty of toilets and I didn't have to queue very long at all which is always a bonus.

The runners funnel was divided into coloured zones. You had to match the colour on your bib to the colour of the pen. It's amazing how many are colour blind and go into the wrong pen which results in slower runners getting in faster runners way at the start. Even with marshalls supposedly checking the bib colours still the wrong people were in the wrong pens.

With 4286 runners this was never going to be an easy race to run especially the first 2km or so until people could space themselves out. The route took us into the lovely Sefton Park which was really great to run around. The 5km marker had the drinks station which was divided into lanes. There were some young kids helping out in their waterproof coats, no not because of the rain mostly due to the spilt water they were handing out to runners. They were smiling and seemed to be enjoying it all though.

Some great music around the course. Special mention must go to the two drumming groups who were around the park. They were absolutely brilliant! they beat out a great rythmn that actually helped me on the slow steady climb out of the park. shame that I don't know what they were called.

The spectators were grand too .. lining pretty much most of the course even in the damp weather. There again Liverpool people are just grand anyway and I'd have expected nothing less but their applause and cheers and general encouragement.

The final stretch crept up on me, only my watch telling me I was 200m away not that I could see the end. On crossing the finish line I was presented with a pot of tuna, bottle of water, the most amazing and heavy medal and a great t-shirt.

All in all this is a great race to attend. There was a 5k the previous day and I'm sure that was probably just as good as this. Recommended.