Steve Morton writes:
This race was described as ‘undulating’ so I did not have high expectations! Training up to the race had gone well so I knew I was in reasonable shape. I thought I might use it to test out my fitness and see how I could do against the M65 age category record. As a fallback I had signed up for the Stratford Marathon which I know is a little flatter.
I woke early as planned and set off in plenty of time. 5 / 10 minutes down the road I realised I had forgotten my race number. Doh! After going back home and picking up my number it was down the M40 with no time to lose. The race venue was at Warwick racecourse and so was easy to find. Parking on a road leading to this wasn’t a problem and I found the way to the racetrack easily enough.
Looking to comfort break I saw a very long queue – surely not? Yes, Q4LOO! Found some more toilets with smaller queue – phew! Next, bag drop and straight onto the tail end of the starters and almost straight away we were off – at least on the 4 minute shuffle to the actual start. There were lots of runners. In fact I was thinking this is rubbish – I’m not doing this again.
I set off at a controlled pace (no choice!) which I think really helped overall. Weaving and wobbling along I made reasonable progress. I briefly looked at what my watch thought my pace was at about mile 2 but decided to just go with the flow from there on and not look at the watch at all.
The only other BvH runner I saw on the run was Claire Mullin who was happy and smiling (at that stage!).
I didn’t find the undulations as bad as I feared but took it steady up them and let myself go on the downhills.
I had a gel at the start and another at mile 7. Sticky goo on hands – what to do? I went for an Elvis quiff solution.
I enjoyed picking off runners and didn’t mind being picked off in turn. I was always expecting the runners I had overtaken to come back at me…
I think at the mile 8 marker I somehow read it as mile 9 – so I was very disappointed indeed to see mile 9 next and not mile 10! 🙁
The run in to the finish is downhill over the last 2km so it was push on and hope! I felt reasonably strong and mustered a bit of a sprint for the finish. Only then did I see that I had exceeded my expectations with a sub 01:40 finish.
The positives for me for this race:
- very well organised
- great support all the way round
- convenient location / start / finish
- great countryside scenery on the route
- good goodies at the end
Will I do it next year? Maybe!