Bath Half Marathon - 3 March 2013

Despite a weather forecast which promised sunshine and relative warmth, our arrival at the runners village was greeted by grey skies and a temperature gauge which stubbornly refused to rise above 0. Nevertheless, the resolute band of Striders convened on the start line in good spirits. The reputation of our club is clearly growing as many of the Striders had, quite rightly, been allocated places in the Elite start pen. On our arrival, the previously bullish Kenyan contingent suddenly started to look nervous.

After an initial charge down the hill for the first mile (which I initially tried to keep pace with before remembering that I was surrounded elite runners) the race settled down into a hugely enjoyable two-lap trot round the beautiful city of Bath. The support along the roads was superb throughout; even at the furthest point out of town in the countryside there was a good sprinkling of enthusiastic spectators. The final straight down Great Pulteney Street is a wonderful experience.

Most Striders seem pretty happy at the end. Rich Cannock was typically sanguine about his excellent 1.25, and even found time to return to Great Pulteney Street to cheer the rest of us home. Dawn Addinall was thrilled with her 1.54 and Claire Sansome, aiming for her first sub-2 hour half marathon, came home in an exquisitely timed 1.59.59.

150 Andrew Jones 1.19:13

321 Richard Cannock 1.25:15

919 Richard Mann 1.34:45

3036 Dan Harte 1.49:46

3263 Paul Jenkins 1.51:17

3593 Nicola Christian 1.53:17

3710 Dawn Addinall 1.54:00

6170 Claire Sansome 1.59:59

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