Fairhaven Flyer

I decided on a late entry for the Fairhaven Flyer to try to run a dreadful Great North Run out of my legs - read on for a little about the course and my race report. 🔖#running #ukrunchat

I only decided on entering this race on Tuesday or Wednesday evening. I never really got my legs moving at the Great North Run the week before, and know that I can run substantially faster than that - I wanted to blow the cobwebs away, so I was quite excited about this race. So much so that I was uncharacteristically well prepared for it, with my kit and dry change of clothes prepared before I went to bed, and my watch and HRM on charge.

I woke up on time on the morning of the race, threw my clothes on, had a cup of tea and a couple of cereal bars - even finding time for a little housework before driving over to West Lancashire. The course being around an hour away from Burnley.

The über organisation ends there. Driving along the M65, past the dark place that we do not speak of, I realised that I had neither used my Forstair inhaler, or brought it or my salbutamol inhaler with me. In hindsight I probably had just about enough time to turn around and get it - but I didn't want to risk missing number collection at the start. I'm sure it would have been fine.

The race is held at Fairhaven Lake near Lytham St. Annes, starting under the Fylde Spitfire Memorial. There is a large car park adjacent to the memorial - I paid £3.10 to park for up to 3 hours in the MiPermit App. Popping to the bathroom and collecting my number only took a few minutes from a gazebo in the field, mercifully given the weather.

The course starts with a clockwise circuit and a half of Fairhaven Lake, heads inland to run towards Lytham Windmill on Clifton Drive, circuiting the windmill and running back to the finish line along the esplanade. The route reminded me a lot of the Fleetwood Half Marathon that FCR also organise.

As I'd scuppered my own race by forgetting my inhaler I decided to warm up properly for a change so that hopefully I wouldn't lose control of my breathing during the race, before joining the start line about 5 minutes out from the off.

Starting conservatively, I settled on following a runner who was running consistently, and where the pace did not cause my chest to begin to tighten. Every time I moved forward I began to struggle with my breathing, and then slipped back to match stride again.

In the final 400m I could hear somebody behind making an awful lot of noise trying to sprint past as many people as possible. So I gie it laldy to make sure they did not come past me - my asthma did ok with that, but my heart rate went through the roof (see fetcheveryone infographic below)