Reading Half Marathon - 2nd March 2014

[AndyC]

I believe in you. Go the distance.

[Ewan]

The GAT is unsure. She's doing a 5km tester run tomorrow but if that doesn't work out then I guess it's a DNS for the 2nd year running for us.

If so she'll probably take a couple of years off from aiming for the half marathon and focus on some shorter races.

[Tritans]

8 weeks lay off have taken their toll. I have been doing plenty of short runs, but the longest has been 6km. I'm paranoid about my injury returning, so reluctantly I'm out.

Particularly disappointing as this was my first, post (very) fatty event, and I've done it every year since. It always acts as a very potent reminder of where I've come from.

[Kevy427]

It always acts as a very potent reminder of where I've come from.

The circus?

[Tritans]

HMP Reading

[Jack Hughes]

HMP Reading

Cue Kevy and some remark about Oscar Wilde

[Ewan]

Right... After lots of wavering one way and another the GAT is in.

The problem is that the trains don't run that early on a Sunday morning and we don't have any parking pre-booked. It looks like the only solution is drive in and park at the train station, and then shuttle bus to the start.

Do seasoned veterans have any tips for us novices? What time do we need to get there to make sure we get a space? Are the shuttle busses efficient? What else do we need to know?

[Bopomofo]

Ewan... earlier in the thread Tritans mentioned parking near him, or on his grounds.

Extra questions from me:

How easy/hard is it to get into a fairly decent position for the start? Do they segregate for different predicted finish times etc? If I have to spend the first 2 km at 6:30/km pace it will screw my plans completely.
Do they have pace runners? Not so important for me as I have my Garmin, but it does help make it obvious that people are in the wrong place...

[Clump]

Ewan... earlier in the thread Tritans mentioned parking near him, or on his grounds.

Extra questions from me:

How easy/hard is it to get into a fairly decent position for the start? Do they segregate for different predicted finish times etc? If I have to spend the first 2 km at 6:30/km pace it will screw my plans completely.
Do they have pace runners? Not so important for me as I have my Garmin, but it does help make it obvious that people are in the wrong place...

The start is very crowded. It's along one half of a road to the side of Green park, by the Madjeski Stadium, so it's just the width of a single carriageway by a couple of hundred metres long.

In theory, it's split into sections for different predicted finishing times, and each runner should have a colour-coded number based on which section they're supposed to be in. In practice, it's not policed, and last year turned into a free-for-all. I was in the sub-1:30 section, so only 30-40m back from the start line... but it took about 3km of slowing down and speeding up, and meandering through slower runners before I could pick a direct line and get up to proper speed. It didn't help that people were running in groups alongside each other, making overtaking quite difficult at times. By the time I got into a decent rhythm, I was already the best part of 2 minutes down on schedule.

I'm doing Fleet this year instead.

They do have pace runners... I think that there's more this year than normal... about a dozen of them at about 5 minute intervals from 1:30 upwards.

Have fun. I hope the weather's better than last year for you.

[Tritans]

The shuttle busses to the race are efficient, its going back where problems have occurred in the past. Long queues etc.

There are 14'000 runners, the start is chaos. Get there early to get a decent spit, it'll take about 10-15 mins to get there. Take an old fleece to keep warm, then discard at the start. They get given to homeless charity.

There are plenty of pacers, and I have always found them to be very good. It is extremely busy the whole way round though.

Look out for the drum band under the flyover, will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. Also the Nags Head "aid station"


Penned in the finest quill from The Royal County.