By Simon
May 14th saw myself and Lyndsey flying the Wreake flag, and I was a little worried about doing back to back half marathons and having not had the best time of it at Bosworth the week before. Whilst I’ve now done a few at this distance, I still haven’t really run one that I was really happy with. Would that change today? We were staying in the city centre so it was a short walk to the Event village, and good signage to show you the way to the easy bag drop. After a brief warm-up we managed to catch the faster runners finishing the 10k, and just missed Leicestershire’s own Gemma Steel winning the ladies race before the HM started off. The atmosphere at the start was great and so much cheering, and inevitably everyone shot off a bit quick but I soon brought it back down to target pace. The route exits the city centre after about 1 mile and heads north up the Portway for around 3 miles. Great views of the Clifton Suspension Bridge as you head underneath it. As we passed through a tunnel there was a loud rendition of “Oggy Oggy Oggy” which always makes me smile.
Two excellent bands kept us all entertained along the Portway stretch until we turned just after 4 miles. It then feels nicely downhill as you head back re-entering the City at around the 8 mile mark. This part of the course was fantastic with a large crowd noise as we approached exiting the Portway. I had a big grin on my face at this point as I soaked up the atmosphere and support. Still feeling good and on for a good time it was now a question of could i keep things going. Around mile 9 and running through Spike Island there was a brilliant singer (Miss Jam Tart) belting out anything from Whitney to AC/DC. Very random but again really picks you up as fatigue begins to emerge. By now it was also very warm and a few were inevitably struggling with the conditions. Lots of twists and turns for the last 3 miles and you often have runners to your left and right which is different but interesting. There’s also a fair amount of cobbled sections. Whilst no big hills there are a couple that seem much harder than they ought to as you near the finish! No walking for me today though. As the 800 metre marker appeared I knew this would be a decent PB and still had something left for the finish . It was a welcome change to be overtaking people at this point rather than struggling across the line which is how my last 2 HM’s have been. The noise down the home straight is again electric. Would I recommend this one? Absolutely. With an overall elevation gain of just 230 feet it has definite PB potential and the added bonus is Bristol is a great place for a few well earned drinks afterwards.