St Albans Half Marathon
14th June 2009

It was looking like a very nice day to run the St Albans Half (Running) Marathon, St Albans Half (Walking) Marathon and the 5K Race. Four Harriers took part in the event. The queue to get into the event was huge and a little confusing as cars lined up to get into the car park only to be turned away and told to go elsewhere. The runners' village was crammed with runners and spectators, a couple of trade stands, food stalls, an activity area and a gigantic queue for the couple of toilets that were available.

The start area had signs up to state where runners should wait according to their finishing times, but these were not very visible and so I ended up standing at the back (couldn't get any further due to the amount of runners) and the estimated finishing time for the area I was in was between 3:30 and 3:45.

Once the race started it was quite difficult to get going as I found myself behind a couple of walkers and as the starting point was quite narrow it was difficult to get past but fortunately I found an opening so had to go through.
The course itself was mainly on the road with the exception of the start and finish and the most of roads were closed off to vehicles. The course took us through part of St Albans and its golf course and then out into the countryside and over the M25. I was enjoying it until I came across the first hill and thought to myself "here we go again.... another hilly race and I don't do hills!!!" But having said that, despite being quite a few steep hills on a longer distance race I actually did quite well and even enjoyed sprinting up a couple of them (or it looked like that as the other runners on the hills at the time were walking!).

The marshalls were encouraging and supportive and having drinking stations every mile on such a hot day was fantastic although that meant that I stopped at everyone to have a mouthful of water (I can't run and drink from a cup!) and that added time to my run. There were a couple of residents around the course who were also supportive by offering drinks and one had their hosepipe out which was a great welcome for several runners.
At one point on the course in one of the country lanes it got a little confusing as some people were going one way and others were going another without any markings on the road but we soon found out that they were doing one of the other races that day. It was good to see mile markers along the course and the finishing line.

There were ice lollies and choc ices, a medal and t-shirt for the finishers. The ice lollies were good especially as it was a hot and sunny day.

Well done to the lads in the club with their times - you did very well!

Amazingly I enjoyed this hilly Half and I know that if I hadn't have taken full advantage of all of the drinking stations I would have got a PB..... but there is always next year!
 
Katarina

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