Dirt Half Challenge

by Lisa Bowyer

The day had finally arrived! With some preparation under my belt I felt slightly confident that I could get my aim of under 2 hours. This was my second half marathon and the first was in MK in May with a time of 1 hour 57 mins. So with the weather man saying expect “hellish rain” I was expecting the conditions to be tough!

Rocking a black sack, I arrived a the start to see all the LBAC lads ready right at the front on the starting line. They all looked keen and ready to race! “Join us here” they said. I didn’t as I thought I would be the slow one in the way at the front of the pack so went a bit further back (big regret!). I should of started with them and gone to the side and used the field to get my pace. I got stuck in clumps of people and it wasn’t until Tesco that I felt like I had cleared out of a pack and got a good pace going. It’s a nice canal run up to the Three Locks with plenty of support along the way. read more

By Andy Inchley

So I haven’t done a half marathon all year, I can’t run the winter half due to an inconsiderate wedding and Bedford is the day after the December Chiltern League so when a friend from MKAC mentioned he was going to Leicester to try and get a London marathon qualifying time I thought I’d tag along, play chauffeur and at least get a time to my name this year.

The weather forecast was just about perfect and we arrived at a chilly but dry Victoria Park with an hour or so before the start. It all looked pretty efficient and bigger than I expected so had no problems collecting my number and doing all the usual pre-race gubbins before joining a few thousand others on the start line. read more

Henley Half Marathon

by David Killick

So I am not up with the running terminology so in my mind, trail running is between nice tarmac and mudswamp cross country.  The course at Henley meanders its way from the park at Henley, with the rowers being shouted at by rather large blokes on bikes with megaphones to a place called Hurley where you turn (more about that later) to head back towards Henley where you turn again and then back to the park and finish.  Tarmac, grass, paths, gravel, mud, undulating hills etc etc. read more

by Gareth Bird

Earlier this year Radio 2’s Chris Evans told his listeners he’d entered the Windsor Half Marathon, so I decided to enter on the spur of the moment. It would have been a good idea for me to check what time the event commenced as the 1pm start meant the risk of it being hot, and it was!

Race instructions were all on the website with just the race number arriving by post. Despite the 4,000 runners the traffic was fine via A-roads and parking was very close to the start in Windsor Great Park.  There were a few traders on site and a good atmosphere with music blasting out. The whole run was on surface roadways, allegedly slightly undulating, but in the words of Chris Evans in his post event interview, ‘that is not undulating, they are hills’! The start/finish is on one of the vistas with a great view of Windsor Castle, the course runs the perimeter of the Park, with no traffic and wide paths so overtaking is easy, just as is being over taken! read more