Danger

At the end of the Freckleton Half Marathon this afternoon I saw this....
You have been warned!!

I'm shattered but I wouldn't have missed today for the world.

Up at 5.15 am to get to Southport for 6.30 to commentate on a triathlon.

I was a little concerned that there were two camper vans parked in front of the public address speakers but my enquiries tod me they were only parked, not occupied.

That's all good then........

Except they were occupied!
They took it all in their stride, however and joined in the fun.

One athlete had a finishing time of 1:23:45 and that was almost my blip until I saw the danger sign! How good would it have been if his race number had been 678?

YearofHappy would have been thrilled because I nearly met the Brownlees..........
Well, actually the man who supplies their bikes was at the triathlon and I nearly spoke to him.

This afternoon I was very lucky that I am not running fit enough to run a half marathon.

Lucky because I chose to cycle the course with the leading lady. So often in races the first lady can go largely unnoticed in a group. So to highlight her and give her the credit she deserved I rode alongside, with a few burst ahead to let crowds know she was coming.

It was my honour to cycle beside Joanna because has become a good friend over the years. She regularly wins the prize for the first village resident but today she made history by becoming the first resident, male or female, to win their respective race.

We both shed a few tears at the end.

Last year my blip included Ben Fish, who won for the 5th time to equal the most consecutive wins by a man. Today he made it 6 in a row.

Finishers at Freckleton get water, orange, tea, (or all 3) and bananas along with their memento.

I also got a large bar of chocolate left for me by YearofHappy which was most kind and soon disappeared. It was disappointing that we didn't manage to catch up.

The sign was put up by one of the ladies who got asked on daft question too many!

I have had to warn her that a sign like this is not acceptable. It isn't big enough and it's handwritten!

A proper, very large, printed sign is on order!!

Have a great week.