I PLAN on hitting Blackpool hard with the lads this weekend.

No doubt you’ll see me staggering down the promenade looking worse for wear on Sunday morning, glancing up at the Tower feeling dizzy and dehydrated, wondering whether I’m ready to stomach some fish ‘n’ chips.

That’s because Sunday is the Great North West Half Marathon, and I’m running in it.

Along with five other guys from a group I train with near my home in Salford, I’ll be attempting to tackle the 13.1-mile course as the first competitive race in my build up to Prague.

Hosted by Fylde Coast Running Club, I’m told the course is relatively flat – handy – but that times can vary largely down to what the wind is like coming off the Irish Sea – not so handy.

Let’s hope it’s a nice day out at the seaside.

I’ll be tapering my training down towards the end of the week, but last night, Wednesday, I was due to go head out with Brian New’s Endurance UK group again.

Meeting at David Lloyd in Great Sankey, Brian coaches a group training mostly for triathlons, such as IronMan in Bolton this July, although some are also gearing up for the Manchester marathon in April.

They are a great group to run with and it was an enjoyable change of scenery from pounding the pavements in Salford on my usual midweek routes.

Brian even acts as a pretty good tour guide, he took us on a nine-miler from David Lloyd up to Fox Covert Cemetery in Appleton, where we stopped (only for a second, honest) to enjoy the views the highest point in Warrington has to offer.

Then it was back down the hill and winding our way through Stockton Heath, past the Academy – which felt dangerously close to going back into work for this hack – and back to base.

Thursday, according to Tony McCarthy’s training schedule, will be a Fartlek session up at Risley with the mixed group from Lymm, Warrington and Birchwood; who I’ve also enjoyed training with.

If you get a chance this week, Google Hyvon Ngetich.

She is the Kenyan athlete who was attempting to set a record at the Austin Marathon in Texas and ended up crawling 50 metres to the finish line, finishing third.

Hopefully that won’t be any of you this weekend, but if you are out and about send me your snaps to as it would be great to share them in the blog.