Bath Half Marathon Review
On Sunday I took part in the 43rd Bath Half Marathon organised by London Marathon Events. This was a sold out event, with another 12,500 runners taking part on the day who would run through the historic city of Bath.
Before the race, our numbers were posted to us which made things easier on the day. To get to the event, we took the train, as it was only a 10 minute journey straight into the city centre of Bath. As part of my warm up, we walked to the event village which was based in Victoria Park, just below the iconic Royal Cresant in Bath. The Event Village had a lively atmosphere, where all the runners waited before their wave was announced. There was even an optional warm up with energetic music which made me excited to run the race!
Finally it was my wave start time and we got underway. The first two kilometres was purely weaving through the massive crowds as the course itself was quite narrow, and I was initially worried I would never be able to get the time that I wanted to as I was running much slower than I thought I would. Thankfully, the crowd opened up and I was able to run more consistently and at the pace I wanted to be aiming for. This was the first race where I didn’t look at my watch much - thankfully I had Jamie beside me the entire way who kept pace for me and was very kind with his motivation and support. Throughout the race, all I kept thinking was just to keep pushing through the next step and focus on the next minute, and tried hard not think about the long distance I was running. I could feel that compared to my last half marathon, I was a much stronger runner and that the months of consistent running had paid off more than any other training programme I had ever followed prior to this. Another persistent thought I had throughout the race was the spectators throughout the course. They were present for each mile of the race, and it was amazing to have the cheers of the crowd powering you through a very hard run. About 11 miles in, I had to dig very deep to keep pushing as I could tell I was getting very tired and my legs were very fatigued. The last push was the hill at the end (which thankfully was only around 400m and not a mile) and I managed to cross the finish line in a time of 1 hour 42 minutes.
As I crossed the line I felt two things 1) Incredibly proud of my time and 2) Very tired. I managed to get my medal and t-shirt and wondered back to the event village and got my bag as it started pouring down with rain. Jamie and I went into the city centre of Bath, and ended up having lunch at a cafe which was a perfect way to finish the day and celebrate my PB!
The event was very special and I really enjoyed the course, and I was so grateful to run it with Jamie by my side for the entire thing. My main takeaway from the day was to enjoy every second of the day, from waking up, to warming up and of course, the running! It is so important to smile and be proud of what you do no matter what the outcome is, because the fact that you show up and try is all that anyone can ask for!