As the title suggest, the race took place at the old Severn Bridge, just outside of Chepstow, on Sunday 30th
August. My entry to this race was an anniversary present form my wife way back in June, a bloody brilliant present I must add, leaving plenty of time to prepare for my first half marathon since 2009. All in all, my training for this race went well (I'm ignoring the Race for Men blip) and for the first time in a long time I was running 10 miles or more on a fairly regular basis. A PB was a distinct possibility as back in 2009 my time was two hours thirty-something and as I wrote in my last post, I was aiming for under two hours.
On the Day:
About a week before the race, the final details were emailed out explaining all the procedures for the day. This year, the organisers decided not to send out race numbers in advance but hand them out on the day, or day before, instead. This worked out ok for myself, as I managed to get mine on the Saturday before so no problems there however there were problems to come. The race was due to start at '9am prompt' according to the email and that there would be ample parking and directions to the car park and race village. Lovely. We left Gloucester at 7:15 which we thought would be plenty of time as it's only a half hour or so drive. This is where the problems came. The 'clear directions' they mentioned turned out to only be present if you were coming from a completely different direction. To make matters worse, there also happened to be a cycling sportive on at the same location on the same day. So when we arrived at Chepstow, there were signs with red arrows up everywhere which I thought were the 'clear directions' I was looking for. Nope. These were the route arrows for the cyclists. To say my road rage was tested is an understatement. After asking for directions and finally finding out where to go, we were then greeted by a monumental queue for the 'ample parking'. We were moving at a snails pace, getting nowhere, and the clock was getting ever closer to 9am. Stressed? Oh yes! The organisers underestimated the amount of parking they would need. In the end they had to delay the start-for which I was very grateful-as there were so many runners still stuck in traffic . After finally finding a space, I left my family to sort out bits and bobs and made my way to the start, which was about a mile walk, a perfect distance to de-stress.
The hooter sounded and we were off. It took about a minute or so to get over the start line. Once over I set off at a decent pace and started making my way through the crowd quite quickly. I was surprised at how much space there was to run considering how many runners there were. I soon settled in to a rhythm and cracked on. My Garmin buzzed showing a first kilometre time of 4:29 and I was worried I had gone off too quickly. That said, I didn't slow down. I decided to see how long I could keep this pace up for. The next few kilometres went by at paces ranging from 4:32 to 4:40 and I was feeling comfortable.
The first mile marker I saw was at 4 miles which was a nice surprise. The route was turning out to be a lovely run through some country lanes with plenty of people out, showing their support. Water stations were well placed throughout, and it was nice to see small bottles of water being handed out instead of in plastic cups which I always spill when trying to drink when running.
Whilst on the route I inevitably encountered some hills and they weren't too bad at all. What was interesting was that at the start of these hills there were some signs. The first said 'This isn't the hill' followed by 'This isn't the hill either'. I was intrigued. After about seven miles other signs arrived: 'The hill is coming', 'we smell your fear' and 'here it is'. This mysterious hill had arrived and it was a beast! Looking up I set myself one goal; no walking. I ploughed on, passing many who had succumbed to 'The Hill' and were walking. Determined not to be its next victim, I put my head down and didn't look up until I reached the top. Needless to say I was a tad out of breath but I had made it. At the top there was one more sign....'Relax, it's all downhill from here'. It pretty much was and I soon got my kilometre times back in to the 4:36-4:42 range. I was surprised I was still managing these times but I kept going and the mile markers went by quite quickly. 8, 9 and 10 miles went by with no drama and eventually I arrived back at the Seven Bridge at around the 10.5 mile mark. The camber of the bridge is a lot steeper than in looks in a car and it was a little tougher than I thought running back over. Add to this that on the way back we had to use the foot path on the side of the bridge. No big deal I hear your say. But for someone with a chronic fear of heights it made for an interesting couple of miles. On the plus side, it did up my pace quite a bit! The last part of the route was fairly flat until with 300metres to go, another sign appeared saying 'This is going to feel like a hill' referring to the slight incline leading back to the race village and the finish. To be fair it felt steeper than it looked but I had no problem getting to the top where you could hear the music and crowds at the finish. This gave me a boost and I wanted to finish strong. Running down the home straight I spotted my wife, two boys and parents cheering me on which was awesome and got me over the line.
At the finish I was given a bottle of water and free lucozade then made my way to collect my goody bag. A decent goody bag it was too, with a cracking running T-shirt amongst other things inside. What I was most impressed with was the medal. Now I'm a sucker for a medal and this one didn't disappoint so I was very happy.
On to my time. My last blog stated I was after a sub 2 hour finish. Well I achieved that, with a time of 1:39:46. I wasn't expecting anywhere near this time so I was and still am one happy chappy!
The Race:
Good points:
- Fantastic route
- Well organised (apart from parking)
- Free lucozade
- Goody Bag
- Drinks stations
- Medal
- Atmosphere
- Parking
- Parking
- Parking
Good times.
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