Fleet Half Marathon

As well as being touted as the ‘pre London half marathon’ the Fleet half is also the inter-services half marathon championships. It is one of the longest-running half marathons in the UK, now in its 33rd year. A great course for runners, gently undulating course with good chance to achieve your personal best time, traffic-free so no dodging traffic or waiting at junctions. There is also LOADS of supporters en route, and the race is really well supported by the local people which is really nice to see.

A founder member of the British Association of Road Races. The host club, Fleet & Crookham AC, can help you train for the event  if you are local to the area and this year the race is supporting Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research. Supporter of The Matthew Elvidge Trust.

My day started pretty early with a coffee and my standard race day breakfast of oats and peanut butter. We arrived in Fleet in good time, and scurried off to find the port-a-loos. And - HURRAY there were loads of them for once. Still some pretty big queues though. 

The race got under way at 1030, and it was already beginning to hot up. I had forgotten how amazing the crowd are through the centre of town, and I was quite looking forward to the second lap (maybe a little sadistic). The route wound its way through the Hampshire countryside (all staying on road), with a VERY welcome crowd at around 10 miles.

I personally had a brilliant race, finishing in 1:21:10, and the RAF and Inter-Service Champion. Never have I been happier to see the finish line! The RAF Ladies all had fantastic races and we took away overall team gold, and Inter-Service team gold too. 

After the race there was a lot of stalls and tents offering things to whet your appetite. Being such a glorious day the ice cream van was getting a lot of attention.

I could not say thank you enough to all the wonderful supporters, and the fantastic organisation of the race.

Here is the RAF report on the race so far.