Race Date: Sunday 23rd March 2025

Race Report by Andy Hinchliffe

I decided to have a change from the Sheffield Half this year after taking on the hills for the last five years as both these races were on the same day.

It did mean an early start to Liverpool leaving at 5.30 for a two hour drive on a miserable rainy morning. I was thinking maybe l have made a mistake, l could have had another hour in bed and was thinking I’d be missing the great atmosphere and the usual meeting up with fellow Striders.

After a quiet drive to Liverpool l found the parking easy as l know the area, it’s quite near to the start. The rain was slowly clearing up and it was dry for the rest of the day.

It was a 9.00 start, l don’t think there were any other Striders there, l expect they were all in Sheffield. I did meet two runners l know Lindsay and Kat in the photo.

There were 12000 runners including a 10 mile race that started at the same time. We got away on time. it was a very well organised race. The start was busy but l wasn’t held up getting past the slower runners who maybe started too far forward. The roads were quite wide the first mile flat, we then turned left to face the only real hill about 600m long, nothing us runners from Sheffield couldn’t deal with. Then round a few turns and into Sefton Park, a lovely park with full size tarmac roads. We did six miles round the park with lots of turns and slight undulation.

We then came out of the park down a few steps and into a 10m subway then back up a few steps, unusual but good fun. Then straight into Otterspool park for a short while, the trail path was quite narrow but we were quite spaced out by now. That took us onto the waterfront promenade starting a four mile run down the side of the River Mersey to the finish. It was flat with a few turns and some cobbles although this wasn’t a problem.

We finished at the Albert docks near to the start. Collecting a good quality long sleeved tee shirt, a medal and some other goodies.

This was a really enjoyable race on a great route, certainly worth a look.

Next year it’s two weeks before the Sheffield half so I’ll be able to do both and get back to Sheffield hills.

There were 3 Striders among 9949 finishers at the Liverpool Half. The men’s race was won by Ian Lawton of Prime Triathlon Coaching in a time of 1:08:42. Lucy Fairclough of St Helens Sutton AC won the women’s race in a time of 1:18:22.

Striders Results