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Half Man, Half Marathon
by Bruce Ure at 00:56 17/05/05 (Blogs::Bruce)
I did another race yesterday: the Canterbury Half Marathon.
This is a half marathon that has been resurrected. It was last staged several years ago and went towards and through bits of the centre, as I understand it, but now has to remain on the outskirts of the city, presumably until such time as it becomes an event more likely to generate some income for the city than cost it. The critical mass might be, I suppose, a few thousand. Reading allow 12,000 to take over their city centre every year.

That said, I would have no objection if the race is run in future years--and I intend to run it--over precisely the same route, because it is so delightful. Petham and Waltham: distilled essences of the Kentish village.

Or change it so it goes through the city centre: also wonderful. Running through the cathedral would be amazing.

We could have done with some more crowds, to be fair, although the modest numbers of folk that did line the route were great, and their support was very welcome. As was that of my good friends Gareth with little Frank, and Simon with his gorgeous girlies Rumour and Amber, and the lovely Sue. And of course my most excellent parents who also put me up and put up with me.

So, it was an enjoyable race, with a great atmosphere. There were about 7-800 entries, from what I could gather. About 400 of these had registered beforehand but many, including me, were on-the-day signups. (I was 512, which is 2^7, you'll be glad to note).

Perfect weather. Sunny but not too hot. A glorious spring day. The course was hilly so I didn't expect a fast time. I had done no training since the London Marathon four weeks ago, so this was something of an experiment in, er, whether you can feasibly run a marathon and then a half marathon four weeks later without any training in between.

And the answer, apparently, is yes.

My time was about 2:04 (without stopping or walking), and whilst I'd have liked a sub-two hour time I'm not going to beat myself up about it. Partly because of the lack of training, and the fact I should have done some (well I did /some/ - I ran twice for a total of an hour), and partly because it was a hilly course and I honestly think that had it been as flat as Reading (where I finished in 2:01:13) I would have done sub two hours. I might also have run faster if I hadn't, um, enjoyed the Dirty Vegas gig at the Shepherd's Bush Emporium on Friday night quite so much, as well.

So that's alright, then.

:bu:

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Half Man, Half Marathon Bruce Ure - 17/05
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          Re: Half Man, Half Marathon David Crowson - 17/05
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