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Tewkesbury Half Marathon - Edward Collier - May 2010

Having run The Stroud Beer Race on Wednesday, and mindful that the older you get the longer it takes to recover from physical exertion (you should see how long I have to sit in a deck chair when I've done ten minutes digging in the garden), I opted not to run at all in the intervening days before Sunday's Tewkesbury Half Marathon.

It's going to be hard for me to avoid going into full curmudgeon mode when writing this report. I was brought up in Bredon (at about mile 9 on the route) and did much of my formative running on these very roads. My first half marathon was the Tewkesbury Half in 1982. I know every inch and every turn of the route, though this year there were some new potholes to trip me up. For me, knowing a route intimately is a pretty sure-fire way to spoil a race (see Stroud, unless like me you've seen Stroud and never want to see it again) and even though the organisers change some details of the course from year to year, it's all like yesterday's newspaper to me - dull, already read, and smelling of fish and chips.

Still, let's look on the bright side. It wasn't tipping down with rain, which is what the weathermen had more or less guaranteed. It was a touch on the windy side, but otherwise good weather for running and getting better as the morning went on. I found myself in convoy behind Ali Shaikh (great result in the 5 mile!) in the queue to park, which was eating up my precious (and poorly-planned) pre-race ritual. My long-term training partner, a genuine elite athlete recently returned from Australia, tells me that the longer the race, the less time you need to spend warming up. The few times he ran a half marathon (I think his best time was about 1h 15m) he did only a few minutes jogging beforehand. When he accompanied me to my 10k PB we did serious running and strides for about twenty minutes in preparation. When he ran the 800m at the Sydney Olympics he warmed up for 90 minutes. I guess there's a sort of inverse correlation here - warm up for 1m 45s to race for 90 minutes, and vice versa.

Actually, my pre-race ritual mainly consists of finding a reliable source of lavatories. I'm sorry to go off on a rather distasteful tangent, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who suffers thus. Certainly there were a few hundred at the race who felt the same, the queue for the portaloos stretching as far as the eye could see. I remember last year being caught out and missing the start, so this year I just decided not to bother. What's the worst that could happen? Well, I didn't really want to think about that, so I milled around looking for club colours, finally spotting a small gaggle rather closer to the front than I'm strictly comfortable with. My preferred strategy in races in recent years has been to start plumb last - the theory being that it's better to overtake than to be overtaken, and in any case you end up in roughly the same place at the end of the race. For some reason this time I stuck with Dale and Duncan and Karen up at the sharp end and wondered if I'd regret it.

No klaxon or hooter, just a countdown and then we were off. Just as at the Stroud race earlier in the week I was able, for the first mile or so at least, to see the leaders before they got on their invisible motorbikes and headed off into the distance (how else do they end up so far in front, when I'm running at full puff?). I saw Anthony Bailey's distinctive running style - distinctive in the sense that even if I could look as effortless, he'd still beat me. I hadn't done any warm up apart from running across from the start to the finish to see if there were any loos there (there weren't), and to get the inevitable nipple-plasters (courtesy of some very cheeky St Johns Ambulance bods), but I was mildly surprised and pleased to find that I'd remembered about the left-right-left-right element of running, and after a couple of miles I seemed to be going along well enough.

The first five miles of Tewkesbury are relatively flat and it's there that you should make your main effort. Also, they're deadly boring, so you have some extra incentive to get to the scenic bit as soon as possible. Turning off the main road towards Bredon, the course becomes very slightly uphill, but much, much prettier. The wind was mainly behind now, too, which helped, and the old legs seemed to be co-operating for once. Once at the top of the long drag from Kinsham to Kemerton, the course begins a nice descent which was welcome. But in the back (and front, and sides, and top, and bottom) of my mind was the dreaded foreknowledge of what was to come. Bredon came and went - my brother (who still lives there) shouting what I hope was encouragement as I went by, but that was when the real pain began. Bredon to Bredon's Hardwick and beyond - miles 9 to 12 (roughly) are mainly uphill, exposed and generally horrible. I was having to give myself a really serious talking-to not to stop - but my real encouragement, and a great spur to keep on - was Chris Midgely, who popped up all over the course, cheering me (and I guess other AAs) on. I was tempted at one point to knock him off his bike and steal it, but he was too quick for me.

One thing I didn't do in this race was look at my watch at the mile splits. For a while I was running behind a Cheltenham Harrier, who had the off-putting habit of checking his time and, obviously seeing a deficit on his plan, shooting off into the middle-distance. I'd then reel him back just before the next mile marker, only for him to do it again, until finally he went a bit too far for me to catch. However, when I looked at mile 12 and saw just over 1h 20m I realised that I was on target, not only to break 90 minutes for the first time for a couple of years, but also to break Ken Sears' club record. I missed Ken's record by 4 seconds, but I don't mind. Tewkesbury isn't a PB course, and running a hard 7 mile race four days before isn't the best preparation. It's the Malvern Half Marathon next month - I don't know the course, I've never lived in Hanley Swan (or if I have, I've forgotten it) so I don't know the route, but it's supposed to be flat. And, unlike Tewkesbury with its 100 metres of grass, it's all run on lovely black tarmac. Just got to make sure I don't leave my mojo at some other race midweek.

Race Report by Karen Galpin and Results

Over 40 Almost Athletes competed in the Tewkesbury Half Marathon resulting in some impressive personal best times, despite the undulating terrain of the course. Phil Withers, who recently attained a 1 hour 40 minute half marathon finishing time equal to a PB set some 20 years ago, exceeded himself by knocking 5 minutes off to run home in 1 hour 35 minutes. Even more remarkable was recent London marathoner Pete Twinning's 1 hour 44 minutes finishing time, representing a PB by some 20 minutes. Dave Davey, having fully recovered from the Brighton marathon 3 weeks ago, and Simon Westgate joined this band of high achievers by recording PBs of 1 hour 44 minutes and 1 hour 51 minutes respectively. Lucky ladies who also ran well to beat previous times were Hazel Everett with her 1 hour 54 minutes finish and Natalie White who crossed the line in 2 hours 14 minutes, over 5 minutes quicker than her previous record.

A well deserved 10th place overall in the race and first Almost Athlete home was secured by a relaxed looking Anthony Bailey who just dipped under the 1 hour 20 minute barrier. Russell Brooks followed him some 7 minutes later, pursued by Ed Collier who was pleased to run the distance in sub 1 hour 30 minutes for the first time in 2 years. Karen Galpin was the first lady home for the club in 1 hour 38 minutes, followed by Rachel O'Bryan in 1.46 and a delighted Sandra Stuart celebrated her half marathon debut by crossing the line in 2 hours 16 minutes.

Anthony Bailey 1:19:56;

Russell Brooks 1:26:00;

Edward Collier 1:27:47;

Dale Midwinter 1:30:11;

Duncan Mounsor 1:35:11;

Philip Withers 1:35:46;

Mark Willicott 1.36.04;

Karen Galpin 1:38:26;

Dave Elliott 1:41:54;

Peter Twinning 1:44:26;

David Davey 1:44:45;

Edward Munro 1:44:51;

Les Knowles 1:45:26;

Andy Bullingham 1:46:55;

Rachel O'bryan 1:46:59;

Jo Collins 1:49:13;

Simon Westgate 1:51:03;

Ian Buckley 1:51:17;

Rob Hume 1:51:42;

Hazel Everett 1:54:48;

David Chittock 1:55:04;

Phil Holding 1:57:26;

Philip White 1:57:45;

Stephen Holland 1:58:52;

Cameron Pay 2:03:05;

Lesley Mills 2:03:18;

Debbie Masding 2:07:39;

Jane Pritchard 2:07:45;

Jean-Paul Beresford 2:07:57;

Gary Sanders 2:10:20;

Ray Pearson 2:10:21;

Frank Nolan 2:11:12;

Kate Houston 2:11:20;

Charlotte Knowles 2:14:28;

Jeanette Gullick 2:14:28;

Sarah Wallbridge 2:14:29;

Natalie White 2:14:40;

Sandra Stuart 2:16:16;

Geraldine Simpkins 2:20:16;

Caroline Chipperfield 2:28:20;

Isabel Romero 2:34:47;

Mary-Jane Sweeting 2:38:36