Shortly after the Winchester Half I jokingly tweeted my brief review “up, up, up, down, up, down, up, down, down, flat, up, up, flat, up, up, flat, up, down, down, flat, finish” in retrospect I now see the error of my ways. After reviewing my Strava route profile I now realise I missed out many more ups!
This is all in jest of course, the Winchester half marathon route is a hilly road race by comparison to the flatlands of Winchester city and surrounding towns but it’s by no means mountainous. With approx 1000ft of ascent for the 13.1 mile route it shouldn’t stop anyone considering entering. The majority of the climbs are done in two main drags with the first about a mile long and at quarter of a mile into the race and the second at about 6miles. Both are fully runnable, feel like they are going on forever but runnable nonetheless.
Starting and finishing outside the Guildhall at the bottom of the city, the Winchester half heads out to the west, dives south before heading back to the start. Parts of the event are on closed roads and the remainder on quiet country lanes or secluded wide foot paths. The organisers did a great job with the route, especially considering the logistics of running a race in a city that could easily be gridlocked by an indiscriminate road closure. Within a mile and half or so you are off the main roads and onto quiet lanes. There were an abundance of friendly marshals, covering every turn and some even dotted around in between. The route was well sign posted and with drinks stations every few miles.
The race culminated on the main high street with tonnes of spectators for the relatively small field of 1300 competitors making for a very raucous run down the finish funnel.
Goodie bag at the end included: Medal, t-shirt, drinks bottle, water, banana, popcorn, Truestart coffee sample.
Regarding my scores: Feed stations: dropped a couple of points since it was quite basic fuel available. Natural Beauty: dropped a couple of points since it was a road race with high hedges so not always much to look at. Course Uniqueness: dropped a couple of points because its a straight forward road race.