William Spanfelner races this Pre-London half marathon, and sets a new PB:
This British Heart Foundation race took place along the front in Bournemouth on Sunday, 28 March, and despite the ominous looking forecast for the big day throughout the preceding week, the weather couldn’t have been better for a run by the sea.
The line-up at the start was entertaining when I turned to see two runners clad head-to-toe in nylon as life-size Jelly Babies ready for to run the 13.1 miles to the finish. The start was organized by groups depending on predicted finish time and I tucked into the 2 hour-ish grouping. A horn sounded the start of the race along the sea front with a short climb to run along the cliff top road affording some lovely sea views.
The route was marshalled well and there were several other races (a 10k, 5k & 1k) taking place simultaneously (www.bhf.org.uk). Support was good most of the way around with the best support centred at the finish and as I was trying out the charity bib in readiness for London, the announcer provided a little plug for LOOK National Federation of Families with Visually Impaired Children as I crossed the line at 2:17 a new PB taking more than 9 minutes off my previous half marathon time.
If you get the chance, run this race if only for that Chariots of Fire like experience.