Silverstone Half Marathon

I have to admit  – I was not looking forward to this race at all. The only positive thing that I had heard was from my brother who had said that the medal was great. The reports from everyone else was not good – it is running around a field in the middle of nowhere and therefore windy. Had I been a Formula one racing car fan then maybe it would be different as the race takes place on the race track. Unfortunately I am not a fan!

The start line

I then found out that the start time was midday. MIDDAY? I ask you. Oh and you had to get there at 10.30 which means leaving home about 8. This race would take all day and how was I meant to fuel my run? Breakfast would be early. As the race started, I would be ready for lunch . Yuck.

Decisions, decisions.

We drove there in thick fog which I took as a good sign as it meant that there was no wind so that would be one less thing to worry about. We arrived in plenty of time and sat in the car for a bit as I didn’t want to get too cold hanging around. As we were waiting for the start the sun  started to make an appearance which gave me a dilemma, what do I wear? If it stayed foggy I wanted long sleeves but if the sun came out I would be too hot. I plumped for a vest and sleeves (with sun-cream on my exposed shoulders). As it turned out the right decision. The sun came out. (And I didn’t get burnt.)

The Course

Source

This gives some idea as to the course. It looped around  a lot which was nice as you felt involved with the race – you could hear the announcements over much of the course so was able to hear when people got a course record. There was also music for much  of it. On the other hand there were not a lot of areas where supporters could get to so there were areas that were quiet although I found that I always had a lot of people running near me. The course itself was nice and wide so no bottlenecks. It was also relatively flat. Towards the end I did feel as if I had been here, done this before and was ready for it to finish but by then I was tiring.

So how did I do?

I got another PB of 2 hours and 49 secs. How pleased am I? At the beginning I felt as if I was going out too fast but found it very hard to slow it down much. At the start we were split into 2 groups over 2 hours and sub 2 hours. I went in the over 2 hours but this meant that I was going faster than most of the people around me. This felt good so, in the end I just kept going. The Lucozade drinks that were provided made me wheezy but no doubt kept me going. I had nothing left at the end which was good as I know that I couldn’t have managed a sub 2 hours…..this time.

Getting out of the car park at the end was a nightmare…..but who cares? I got a PB!