Ironbridge Half Marathon 21/03/2010

Wow, wow, wow! That’s all I can say… ...well not quite. If you are a relatively new runner don’t let the frequently published opinion that the Ironbridge Half Marathon is one of the toughest half marathons deter you from entering. If the weather conditions are on your side this is a truly inspiring course.  It is very well organised and timing is done by Sports Systems chips on your shoes so you know results are pretty accurate. Apparently this is a vast improvement on last year’s admin where chips were on race numbers and you got scanned at the end with a hand held device causing queues and wasted time. The race starts and finishes in Telford Town Park. It is a loop course that takes in some stunning scenery through Ironbridge Gorge. I found the toughest part of the race going up hill towards the famous iron bridge itself and over it, despite the rest of the race being a steady climb back to the finish line it’s a lovely route along the Silkin Way with plenty to feast your eyes upon on the way back. I felt a little tired around the 84 minute mark but spotted the mile markers and a giraffe (!) which kept me going. I think if I had started a little slower then I could have improved on my finish time of 1hr 58mins but for my first half marathon I was delighted with that time.  The sunshine helped a lot I think, especially as it was very unexpected as it had been tipping it down for the whole of the previous day. My lasting memories are coming through Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site itself with the hazy sunshine picking out the church and cottages on the embankments of the gorge, the spectacular bridge and somehow finding enough juice in my legs to sprint at the 200m mark desperate to ensure I came in under 2 hours. Funny as I can always remember my long distance runs around the track at school always seemed to finish with a 200m sprint at the end. Guess my legs have got a better memory than I thought J Here are the photos from the race.  Good show from my running club the Wrekin Road Runners as there were 19 of us, go Wrekin! Look forward to Ironbridge Half 2011!

Ennstone 7 Wrekin Road Runners' Race 14/02/2010

Ouch!

Firstly, I wasn't expecting the Wrekin Road Runners Ennstone 7 race to be preceded by a mile long dash to the start of the race (my fault as I arrived a little late and the car parks we full so ended up parking outside my office) and secondly I wasn't anticipating quite so many hills in the race.

Still, what better way to spend Valentine's Day than to spend it dashing around Telford Town Park in the lovely morning sunshine?

The Ennstone 7 race is a really well organised race with a clearly marked out route, excellent marshalling, a couple of water stations and best of all; a cup of Kathy's wonderful hot soup to look forward to at the end, plus a medal for all finishers.

I thoroughly enjoyed this race, probably as the sun was shining, there was a strong turnout of happy runners and the route itself is really quite pleasant. Something that you don't see on many races is a talking Stegosaurus, but this race takes you right past several talking dinosaurs in the children's area of the park. All of the route in on hard surface utilising the park paths and the start and finish of the race is a lap or so around a track, or bowl. There are several hills en route which are quite manageable but the one at the end is a bit of a killer, however, I managed not to walk it so it can't be that bad.

This was a good race to include in my marathon training schedule, although it did hit me half way round that it is only 9 weeks until my very first marathon, the Shakespeare Marathon at Stratford upon Avon on April 25th 2010. I know I have some serious training to do for that as I can really feel the Ennstone 7 in my legs today :-)

Thank you Wrekin Road Runners for putting on a great race, see you at training on Tuesdays/Thursdays.