European running Challenge

Sunday 20th May 2018 No 7  Richard 01:55:33 Jackie 02:13:11 Our first time in Riga and our first time in Latvia , and what a brilliant place it is.The weather was lovely the flowers were out , plenty of bars , restaurants and shops . It is small compared to other cities we have visited but plenty too see and easy to get around . The high light for me was Riga Central Market, one of the biggest in Europe .  The main structures of the market are five pavilions constructed by reusing old German Zeppelin hangars . The market is 72,300 square meters wide with more than 3,000 trade stands. Everything was on sale from 400 euro tins of Caviar to home made 3 euro slippers . The Riga Marathon is a relatively new tradition , but it now attracts top professional athletes and is the only race in Northern Europe with a Bronze IAAF label and is hoping to achieve Gold label by welcoming 35.000 participants from 70 countries . The economic impact for 2017 was calcu...

Sunday 8th April 2018 No 6  Richard 01:59:19 Jackie 02:18:01  Tight security was very evident for this event , bag checks body searches even screening going into the event center . The start area was fenced off and a wrist band and your number were checked before entering the start area . It is a massive event 34,500.00 runners and 1,500.00 inline skaters registered  and it sold out well in advance. Now in its 38th year it also attracts 250,000.00 spectators along the route .We learnt after the event that a terrorist attack had been planned and arrests were made during the early hours of Sunday .           Erick Kiptanui led a group of 6 fellow Kenyans to set a new course record in 00:58:42 while the fastest women was Ethiopian Melat Kejeta in a time of 01:09:04.          The weather for this event was stunning we left a bitterly cold Manchester and arrived in a pleasant 18 degrees with blue sky's and...

Sunday 25th March 2018 No 5  Richard 01:54:43 Jackie 02:14:07 The inscription on the medal and t-shirt translates as "nice to see you " . Now in its 13th year the Warsaw Half  Marathon has grown from 1000 runners in 2006 to over 14000 this year . This is a medium sized field in the world of  Big City running events but it attracts some top runners Kenya's Victor Kipchirchir is the event record holder at 60:48 for the men and Pauline Njeru in 69:06 for the women . This years winner was Kenyan  Erza Kiprotich Sang here are his splits . Nazwa Name Czas brutto Gun Time Czas netto Chip time Min/km Progonozowany czas Projected time 5KM 00:14:38 00:14:38 02:56 min/km 01:01:53 10KM 00:29:14 00:29:14 02:55 min/km 01:01:32 15KM 00:44:01 00:44:01 02:56 min/km 01:01:53 20KM 00:58:29 00:58:29 02:55 min/km 01:01:32 META 01:01:37.00 01:01:37 02:55 min/km   And for the...

Sunday 4th March 2018 No 4 Richard 02:07:31 Jackie 02:12:32   We were lucky to make this as " Beast from the East " had arrived bringing high winds , freezing temperatures and snow snow and more snow . This is what it was like on Thursday 1st March , the M62 was shut due to drifting and high winds.  As our train left at 8.30am Friday morning  we decided to load the bikes on the car and stay overnight at a Hotel close to the station. Cycling was out of the question . Originally we had planned to cycle London to Paris but as we  only arrived back from the Malta Half on Monday 29th February we switched plans . Lucky we did as I very much doubt we would have had any chance against the "beast". Jackie at Piccadilly Station At St. Pancras International  , bikes checked in . The journey went better than expected , the stations were very busy and many trains had been cancelled . We had to make a diversion because of icicles in a tunn...