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Bath Half Marathon
What a lovely description, Nigel. I bet Andy is wishing he was there now!
As for me, it was my first half marathon, having only run for the first time last year in the Great South Run (10 miles). I thought the day was great and the weather certainly made Bath look beautiful.
I thought I'd picked up a knee injury at 8 miles but popped a couple of aspirin and slowed for a couple of hundred yards and it disappeared for the rest of the race (indeed forever!). I passed the 10 mile mark at 2mins below my PB at that distance and pushed forward to try and get home in sub 2hrs. Unfortunately it was not going to happen and I managed 2h02m33 according to my Timex Ironman.
There were times when I wondered about giving up, but I have to say that it was worth the mental effort because the finishing straight in Gt Pulteney Street with scarcely any runners around you was fantastic.
I do have a few criticisms though:
1. The"grid" was not marked out on lamp posts or similar.
2. Mile markers were sometimes hard to spot.
3. Water stations dispensed in cups and on one occasion could not keep up with demand.
4. After the finish runners were not funnelled to the goody bag area. We got caught in a general melée with finishers, spectators et al.
5. Wot! No medal! Or foil blanket. In Portsmouth we got a medal, a T-shirt, a foil blanket, some footspray ....... and a cuddly toy (only joking about the cuddly toy!)
As I said earlier, I'm a novice (46 year old) at these events and I'm learning all the time. In Portsmouth I learnt about sore nipples so I taped them this time. In Bath I learnt how to walk back to the car like John Wayne. In fact I'm still walking like that today, so next race I shall invest in a tub of vaseline and will apply it liberally to the upper, inner thigh area.
Final thought: Shall I do the Bristol in September? About 12:30 yesterday (Sunday) I would have said "No!". Today, mmmm I'm warming to the idea. It was certainly a breeze having local knowledge yesterday for parking etc. That (and only 12 miles to get home) was certainly preferable to the 2 hour jaunt to Portsmouth.
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