Gloucester Half Marathon

What the otherwise very comprehensive race instructions missed was the, um, undulating, nature of the course. They couldn’t have predicted the immense heat – I have no idea what the top temp was, but I discovered that even my shins could sweat, lovely??!!

I was a little apprehensive about the race, my training, as many of you know has been a little on the short side, and I did do Joe’s training session on Saturday. Excuses over, I wasn’t prepared and had set myself a goal of sub 1:45 as being reasonable. That went out of the window at about mile three as my only focus was getting to the mile four water station.

I’ll spare the gory details of walking through water stations, stopping at the last two to take on as much water as possible, doing what I’ve never done before…adopting a run/walk approach in order to keep going and practically hugging the very nice man with a hose pipe at mile seven.

The route wasn’t the easiest, much of the first half formed a gradual down, which meant the second half was a gradual, and in some cases steep, ascent. But a more scenic route you couldn’t have wished for. Taking in the scenery and support of the villages surrounding Newent, the views were spectacular, only one housing estate was involved, and it offered some of the best views across the countryside.

The support was amazing, a lot of runners bought family with them, who set up deckchairs in the finish area and enjoyed the sun, some came out on the route, finding short cuts to cheering points, and cheering loudly. The local villages were not to be outdone and many people set themselves up at junctions and in gardens to offer their encouragement. OK, most of them thought we were mad (they may have a point) but their support never wavered and the atmosphere was great.

Then there were the fellow runners. Everyone was suffering, and as such we shouted support at each other, compared our pain, discussed chocolate – if you wear the teal with pride, it’s a natural side effect – and generally helped each other along.

After 13.1 miles of up, down, round and up again in the relentless sun, I finished in a fairly respectable 1:48:50 by my watch. I say that because the start was so low key, we didn’t notice! You walk up the road to the start, then there’s just a man ringing a bell which means get running.

I struggled, but strangely enjoyed it, the camaraderie of runners, support of marshalls and the shear achievement of overcoming the desire to stop and let a nice St Johns ambulance man take me home, made my personal worst something to be proud of.

Hopefully I’ll be back next year, with some decent training under my belt and with full knowledge of what I’m letting myself in for :-).

No cakes, but the goody bag contained many energy drink stuff and a rather fetching blue Cheltenham and Gloucester cap – lovely.

Linda

Race website here