I’m going to be totally honest here...... I decided this year for my charity challenge I was going to complete 5 half marathons in October, so one every Sunday for 5 weeks.... when I started my challenge I’d picked some big races, Cardiff Half, Royal Parks Half, Manchester Half so looking around for a half on 4th week Oct nearer to Home was proving challenging.... I saw Stroud and decided I would use this race to complete my 5 for the month.... because I’d picked such big attendance races, I hadn’t been looking forward to this from the time I booked it. It was kind of a ‘filler race’ as I needed a HM for that week. I did have an awards ceremony the evening before as well, which meant a late night before this race and promised myself I wasn’t drinking.... but I won Welsh Athletics Run Leader of the year.... so, 2 glasses of Moët, 2 large G&T’s & 2 glasses of red wine later I failed. I’d also only had 5 hours sleep before getting up for the race, so was dreading it even more. When I arrived, hungover & tired, Marshalls were still setting up the timing pads & barriers, so concerned me even more. 

My hangover and my head said ‘just run it and finish... not pressure or need for a PB today’. 

(I did see a racecheck #teamwhite visor in the starting pen too!) 

Anyway..... my fears and dread were totally alleviated! what a lovely race! I throughly enjoyed it. The route was fab, lots of winding lanes and little villages, quite bizzare running down the main roads with the traffic (the marshalls had coned off areas for us to run in on the main roads), lots of lovely little gradients and a not to steep hill but challenging enough around the 10k mark with a lot of spectator support at the top (outside the pub!)  Hats off to the marshalls on the one main roundabout, stopping the traffic for us to run round it too. Really surprised at the amount of crowd support because of the route, there were little pockets of supporters on the way round which were much appreciated. 

The constant gradient running towards the finish line for about 1.5 miles was a great last push for the finish too. 

As it wasn’t a huge race (even though it was sold out), the commentator at the finish line called everyone’s names out as you crossed the line.

Even in my hungover state, I still managed 1:46:54 (32 secs off my PB) with the course not being flat. Perhaps drinking is the way forward before a race? :-) 

Nice bit of bling (always important!) and tshirt. 

Not so great bits..... no tracker app, so I did a Facebook live at mile 10! Water in cups at the water stations & mile 9-10 was a bit bleak around the industrial estate but apart from that, it’s a good race. Good value for money & I’ll definitely be running it again. Well done Stroud Half for exceeding expectations on what I thought would be my worst one of 5 HM’s.