After a couple of 10K’s earlier in the summer, I turned my attention back to half marathons, largely to assist with the marathon training I embarked upon, some 10 weeks ago. After vowing never to run 26 miles again after last summer’s Gloucester Marathon, the memories of the injury, physical exhaustion and uncomfortably high temperatures quickly faded, and before I knew it, I was signed up to run the Chester Marathon in October. Watch this space…
To date, training has not gone to plan, with the number of injuries and niggles I’m now carrying almost into double figures! My left hamstring (and the sciatica in both the left and right side of my body) has proved to be particularly troublesome and something I am struggling to shift. Purchasing a good quality foam roller in the past couple of weeks appears to be helping, so fingers crossed that I’m on the road to recovery.
As mentioned, I ran the full marathon in its debut year in 2016, so this year, whilst tempted to put last years ghosts to rest, the half was the more sensible option as it would allow me to run a local race and double-up as a decent test within the mid-point of my training programme. It was the first time that the organizers had included a half into the schedule, and given that the course is as flat as you could ever wish for (touted as the flattest half in the UK on their website), swerving the treacherous hill at 17.5 miles in the marathon seemed like the perfect strategy.
The race Expo opened on the Saturday morning prior to the race, which required runners to pick up their race vest and chipped race numbers from a number of small covered stands situated on the edge of the canal, a stones-throw away from the Quays, where the start was situated.
A few initial gripes before we get into the race; 1. The cost - £36 PLUS a processing fee of £3.34 (Seriously! For what? They didn’t even send the race packs out!). 2. A severe lack of toilet cubicles – the queues were horrendous. I ended up strolling past the queue and releaving myself behind the cubicle block (no shame!) for fear of missing the start a block or two or men’s urinals would have helped ease the congestion massively. 3. The starting area – No pens indicating predicted finish times, a lack of visible pace-makers and no, wait for it, starting line! You would expect a fairly visible starting gate, but there was nothing. It was only by chance that (as we began moving forward with the other runners) I happened to look down to see a mat which I assumed was the start line, which prompted me to start my watch!
Despite the above, the atmosphere pre-race was brilliant. I bumped into loads of familiar faces and names from the Twitter running fraternity (UK RunChat, RaceCheck, Runr) who had travelled from various parts of the UK to participate. I was so relaxed chatting with them about tactics and what they were up to in their running worlds, that I almost forgot why I was there! A great bunch of people!
The start time for both races was 8am, which I believe was scheduled slightly earlier than the standard 9am gun to accommodate a potentially warm day (it was 23 degrees out on the course last August) and to enable the roads to be re-opened as early as possible. As it happened, the weather was as good as could have been expected for an August race. It was around 16 degrees by 9am, but with, frustratingly, a slightly annoying headwind on the second half of the course.
After a congested start through the Quays, we made our way out onto Southgate Street and then through the city, eventually heading towards Churchdown and Down Hatherley.
I was running with a friend who had travelled across from Kent for the event and one of her friends who is fairly quick over a half and who had kindly agreed to pace us through the race with the aim of getting us both sub-1.44 finish times. A long shot for me, given my string of (excuses!) injuries, but I was prepared to give it a go!
The first couple of miles were paced perfectly (7.41 – a little quick and 7.50), and by mile 4 (along the Cheltenham Road) we had put in another couple of 7.50-somethings, so all was looking good. I was feeling fairly comfortable (aside from all the aches and pains in my legs), but my friend was starting to struggle a little at around 5 miles. This wasn’t surprising, given that she had cycled over 100 miles and run a marathon in the past week!
Our ‘personal’ pacemaker slowed down to support her and told me to carry on as we were. Mile 5 roughly marked the split on the course (another frustration was that there were no more mile markers after mile 4!) where us half runners turned left to travel cross country (we would eventually join the marathon route again at mile 20) with the marathon runners continuing north towards Cheltenham.
As I headed off into the rural Gloucester without my support team, it dawned on me that I hadn’t run a half on the road without an official pacemaker for a couple of years (the guy that was meant to be pacing the 1.45 slot pulled out due to injury the day before). I certainly don’t endorse relying on them for all races, but I must admit that I felt lost not sitting on someone’s shoulder, who is effectively doing the lion’s share of the leg work. It’s a lot harder running on your own and more tricky to keep to your intended pace. I ran through 5 and 6 at 7.55 and 8.00 respectively, but was having to now work harder than I’d have liked in what was still the early stages of the race. After taking an energy gel at 6.5 miles, I felt fairly strong again. Mile 7 was my strongest for a while (7.50) so I was encouraged to push on and maintain the momentum I was steadily building.
We briefly ran onto Tewkesbury Road heading back south again before a sharp right onto a narrow lane which headed past some beautiful old buildings and into some really rural countryside. The terrain started to get a little lumpier and the surface underfoot more uneven, before we hit a fairly strong head-wind that was to last for a couple of miles. After running through an actual farm (!) (this was the part of the course that following a private road), I knew that once I got to 10 miles I’d be a ‘Parkrun’ away from the home, so continued to push on through what was a fairly remote part of the course with very few spectators and only the odd marshal here and there.
By 9 miles I knew I was off PB pace by about 15 seconds and, annoyingly, didn’t have the energy to pull that back, so decided to aim for at a sub-1.45, which I was still on track for at 10 miles. Then, without warning, the speed seemed to drain out of my legs and I dropped down to 8.15/20 pace for a mile or so. It was really strange, since I wasn’t struggling or labouring in my efforts, I just wasn’t running as quickly as I wanted to!
At around 11.5 miles, after running through Sandhurst and back onto the main road that circled Gloucester, we entered a small estate before running alongside the River Severn, going up and over a pedestrian bridge that crossed the main road (which was very hard to navigate due to the need to run in a steep circular motion (back on yourself effectively) before dropping back down to the river towpath. Before the crossing, there was a particularly challenging 45 degree ramp to run down (more suitable for a mountain bike!) and with these twists and turns and unevenness of the latter part of the course, my time for mile 12 was 8.30, so I’d effectively lost any chance of running a decent time. At that point, I decided to actually enjoy the last mile along the river in the warm sunshine!
After another ridiculous u-turn maneuver needed to cross the final small bridge, and with a few hundred yards to go, I put my foot down and looked for a strong finish, overtaking a few people along the way (it’s always a great feeling to reel people in so close to the finish!, and as I reached the Quays and home straight, I actually slowed down to wave and clap the supporters congregated along the finishing straight. People often neglect to realize how important these people are to an event, so as I wasn’t going to hit a PB, I thought I’d show them my appreciation, which got a massive response of acknowledgement back, which made the hairs stand up on my neck. What a great crowd!
I came in at 1.46.02, so if hadn’t have slowed down (show-boated!) at the end, I’d have run a credible 1.45 something. But, given my injuries, a warm day and a tricky last couple of miles, I was more than pleased with my efforts!
We were actually presented with a vest at the Expo before the race, and a decent medal at the finish line. Since the race, I have read a great many negative comments on various social media sites about the confusing start, a lack of water out on the course (which probably impacted on the marathon, rather than half runners), a lack of toilets at the start, marshals sending runners the wrong way out on the course and generally poor organisation.
The start annoyed me along with the cost of the event, which was not value for money, but if you take that away, the actual route was great and the supporters and marshals fantastic. It is only the second year this event has been held, so if the organizers can learn from these mistakes and take on-board the negative aspects of the event, it has the potential to be a great annual running festival for the city of Gloucester.
For me, I was happy with my run and will now get my head down and crack on with my marathon training.