Fleet Half Marathon

Another year, another Fleet Half Marathon.

I love this race for so many reasons. And I also hate it because it is a painful half marathon. As it is the Inter service and RAF Championship event it is always in my calendar. I think I must always be one of the first people to register in October, and I start planning training. Like all good plans its all about different colours, and highlighters and symbols, I think of all the revision planning I did during my A levels, and how much time I could have actually spend revising! In this case my training plan took a lot of re-writing due to being injured, and not running at all from Aug- early Nov.

Over the winter training dribbled on, and come the beginning of march I was feeling pretty good. I raced a duathlon on the 8th, and then….2 weeks of illness. I got a stomach bug and then a virus which mean almost 0 training for the 2 weeks leading up to the race. So in the lead up to the race I cant say I was in the best frame of mind. I just kept telling myself rest is good, then the over training deamon on my shoulder kept telling me that it was terrible….and I might as well not bother! Common sense won in the end! A great session of yoga the day before really helped, and some wise words resonated in my ears, about accepting my body where and how it is today.

Race day came, which meant big yummy breakfast and being chauffered by my ever supportive other half.

I was very pleased the sun was shining. My warm up went well and I exchanged hello’s with the other RAF runners.

I vowed not to make the mistake I did last year which was to start in my predicted time area. All that happened was I spent the 1st mile weaving in and out of joggers, and

bannas. This time I started more towards the front and had a bit more clear space, which allowed for better pacing in the first few miles. I was pretty happy with the pace and progress was good. I was definitely feeling heavier than I would have liked due to my 2 weeks off, and I was certainly carrying around a couple of extra kg’s I didn’t need.

The first loop was over very quickly which was great, this means running through the town again and seeing the fantastic crowd! The RAF vest always gets lots of attention and cheers which is great to experience and be a part of.

Off into the countryside I was running with a group of Gurkahs who were impeccable at pacing! 6 min miles every mile….perfect! I then got some quite bad stitch and dropped off their pace abit. Come mile 10 I thought “this would be a great place to stop”. I hung on for the last few km. in the final km seeing out TM cheering on her bike was great.

The revised finish lay out was much better, although I totally missed where the clock was! Never mind, I pretty quickly received a text with all the info.

Thanks a million to the organisers, the lovely people of Fleet for cheering, and being patient with the road closures!

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.