Race 23: South Downs Half Marathon

Distance: 13.1 Miles

Time: 2 Hours and 20 minutes

Well summer has well and truly arrived to the UK this weekend and I was lucky enough to be running a half marathon in the midst of the hottest weekend of the year. The run was in land- over an hour away from Shoreham running through the outskirts of the New forest on the Hampshire/ Sussex border. Although it was a pretty long drive it’s one of my favourites as it passes through Petworth park and the lovely town of Midhurst as well as the rolling hills of Cowdray Park. A lovely drive indeed.

The race started at Queen Elizabeth Country park which I can honestly tell you I had never heard of prior to the race. From what I could see of it, it’s a rolling country park with the peak of Butser Hill at it’s heart.

The sun was already beating down on the park at 9am and it was extremely warm. We arrived within 20 minutes of the start of the race and as Alex wasn’t running he kindly helped me to collect my number while I joined a particularly massive queue for the loo.Before the race started I made sure to slather on the suncream and was also very relieved to be wearing a cap. Another runner saw me putting on sun cream and eagerly asked if he could use some. I’m happy to have helped!

The race started at 10am with a half loop of the park (Butser Hill NOT included - thankfully) before we headed out into the surrounding woodland. I had my music on in my ears and I was telling myself to just take it easy. I really didn’t want to go crazy and waste lots of Energy weaving round people so early on in the race. So I got comfortable in a slow and steady pace and just got on with it. I was also particularly smug with myself for having frozen the bottle of water that I run with the night before so that the water I would be starting the race with was still partially frozen… I’d take any relief I could get.

The course was nicely varied from rutted unpaved public footpaths to tarmacked access roads through the forest. There were a good few shocking hills thrown in for good measure too. I didn’t really even try to run the hills this time- it was just too hot- so I stomped up as quickly as I could. One of the hills was particularly massive- around the half way point if I remember rightly and an older gentleman jogged past me trying to encourage me as he went. Good on him- I was pooped and there was no way I was going to even attempt running over a mile of steep climb.

My favourite bit of the race was waiting in a queue to climb over a stile just before part of the race that took us running through a wheat field. This was the weekend after the general election and the country was going wheat field crazy with Theresa May jokes, so many chuckles were shared between the runners as we waited in a orderly fashion to get into the field in front.

Waterstops were pretty spread out and I know that water became an issue on this race as a email was sent out on the Monday with an explanation. (they had planned on 2 bottles of water per runner per stop) - this was not enough on a mixed distance day + a mammoth heat wave as at some stops runners were easily downing 2 bottles of water and chucking (at least) one over themselves to cool down. At one of the stops while enjoying my water a horse fly also enjoyed the back of my leg. I screamed like a banshee while slapping him off and thankfully another runner gave me a bit of sympathy (rather than laughter) as he jogged past. It itched for DAYS after- bloody horseflies!

The day continued to heat up so the last few miles were pretty tough. I was very pleased to see the finish line in the distance and surprised myself (and Alex) with a massive sprint finish. I took on a LOT of water after crossing the finish line and was VERY amused to find a full jar of pasta sauce in my goody bag (how random). The drive home was long and hot and the shower I had when I got home was one of the best ever. I staggered round in 2 hrs and 20 minutes which I was pretty happy with as I thought it would have ended up being a lot slower than my previous half marathon at the High Weald- but it was pretty much the same. Summer is not the time of year for PBs I am fast discovering.