50 July–August 2009 | Issue 3

Hi there! In the last issue, I men-tioned that I was training for the Manchester 10K run. Well, I’m pleased to say that I completed it in 1 hour 6 minutes, but more importantly, I finished without stopping once! Well done if you took part also. If it’s given you the running bug then why not sign up for the next step in life’s challenges – a half marathon?

On Sunday 4 October, Warrington will play host to the New Balance English Half Marathon. The marathon’s also called The People’s Challenge because they want everyone to get involved. That includes runners of all abili-ties – elite, club and charity runners, and especially first-time runners! After all, this is the first half mara-thon in Warrington!

Starting in Victoria Park, the route will head away from the town centre to the scenic countryside around south Warrington, taking in the beautiful villages, before finally returning to Victoria Park.If you would like to run for charities such as St Rocco’s Hospice and Open-ing Doors as well as others, you can sign up and find out further details by visiting the marathon’s web-site at www.english-half.co.uk

WARRINGTON HOSTS ITS FIRST HALF MARATHON!

2009’s Stockton Heath Festival is going to be even bigger than before. From Thursday 9 July to Sunday 12 July, there’s plenty of culture, comedy, art, music and drama for the whole family to enjoy! Go to www.stocktonheathfestival.co.uk for more info and tickets.

If you love live music, the Warrington Music Festival on Saturday 11 July is for you! Taking place in Queens Gardens, Palmyra Square from 11.30am to 7.30pm, you’ll get to see over thirty bands performing live. There’s also the Urban Karaoke MC tent, a licensed bar, PLUS I’ll be hosting on the day! For more details go to www.myspace.com/warringtonmusicfestival

The Warrington Youth Festival will take place in Queens Gardens, Palmyra Square from 12 to 5.30pm on Sunday 12 July. Featuring the coun-try’s most prolific professional BMX/skateboard display team, Team Extreme, you’ll be able to go along, get padded up and learn from the pro-fessionals! Other attractions include extreme martial arts tricking, street acrobatics, free running and live music.

The Warrington Disability Partnership (WDP) invites you to their hugely popular Disability Awareness Day (DAD) at Walton Hall & Gardens from 10am to 5pm on Sunday 12 July. DAD is an annual, independent, living exhibition and a family funday rolled into one! Wire FM and I will be broadcasting LIVE again from DAD this year so we look forward to seeing you on the day! Find out more at www.disabilityawareness-day.org.uk or call the WDP on 01925 240 064.

To find out more about local events don’t forget that you can listen to me on 107.2 Wire FM, weekdays from 3 to 7pm and Saturdays 10am to 2pm. Visit my website too at www.petepinnington.co.uk

I took my baby son Jake on his first family holiday abroad recently. What an experience! During the week, I noticed that there were mainly women bathing in the sun. Their partners, babies and buggies were nowhere to be seen. So I de-cided to go and investigate; I put my son Jake in the buggy and told Sarah I’m off for a wander so that I could walk Jake to sleep. Once I got to the high street I was amazed to see mainly dads and their buggies walking up and down! After walking for half an hour, I came up to a bar with at least 15 buggies parked up and dads inside with pints of lager! So I parked up and one of the dad’s asked me how long before my son was asleep, to which I replied 20 minutes. He then shouted “Get this lad a drink!” I must have stayed drinking for near-ly two hours with them! When I got back to the pool area, Sarah asked “How come you’ve been gone for so long?”, to which I replied “Oh, it took ages to get Jake to sleep”. Now I can see why dads enjoy doing the lonely buggy walks on holiday!

PETE’S PAUSE FOR THOUGHT

Thanks for reading!

Pete

Pete’s Calendar...

www.shannonstrust.org.uk www.j-u-m-p.org

Wire FM’s longest-serving presenter gives us his views and discusses

what’s on in Warrington

w w w. p e t e p i n n i n g t o n . c o. u k

Listen to PeteWeekdays

3–7pmSaturdays

10am–2pm

There are loads of local charities that would appreciate you running for them as well, such as The Shannon Bradshaw Trust, J-U-M-P and War-rington Disability Partnership. All of our local charities could gain so much if we all signed up and ran for them! The day before (3 October), there’s a 1-mile ‘Fun Run’ within Victoria Park for the kids to take part in too.