Forest of Dean Trail Half Marathon

I don't know what you got for Balloch to Clydebank, but in the Forest of Dean it was absolutely pissing down, with gusting galeforce sou--westerlies that managed to come from whatever direction you ran.

Last night I got about 48 minutes of sleep, due to having a week old bairn kicking about the house, so it was touch and go whether I could actually drive to the FoD without wrapping myself around a tree (just to get a bit of kip).

Once there however, adrenaline and coffee kicked in and I felt OK. About 500 runners, I think, and a rather squeezed start, out onto the puddly trails. I forgot to start my watch for a while, then got to the first mile marker in 5.34, and (forgetting that I'd forgotten to start my watch) thought oh bollox better slow down. Which I did, until I thought why am I going so slowly so I tried to speed up again, but by 5 miles I was beginning to feel like crawling behind a tree for 40 winks, and kept finding myself slowed to a training jog.

A couple of nice slithery climbs started me working a bit, and by about 8 miles I was gradually waking up and warming up and moving through the field.

Strange route really, everyone going about how scenic etc etc, but really it was mostly on old mineral railways through the forest, and felt a bit like running down lots of tree-lined corridors, with a massive puddle every other step and loads of mud. And whenever the trees opened out a bit, you got knocked sideways by the wind - all in all not really ideal racing conditions!

But somehow by 11 miles I was feeling great, and really opened up (5.21 for the 12 mile), but I could only catch one more as the gaps up front were huge.

I've not done a half since Glasgow 2000, which was my PB, and I was totally amazed to finish only 6 seconds outside that time, feeling very fresh. Feeling like shite now though, and guess who's just started crying...

The race HQ had good facilities, and the organisation and marshalling were excellent, so if anyone's in the area this would be a great race to do, if only the sun was shining.

1 Matthew Collins (Cardiff AC) SM 1.14 (Welsh team fell runner)

2 Dennis Walmsley (Bourton) V40 1.16

3 John Foster (Lliswerry) V40 1.17 (surely not your old mate, Damon??)

4 Crispin Flower (MDC) SM 1.18.55

Posted by Crispin Flower on Sun 14 Mar 2004 | comments are closed

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