Cambridge Half Marathon – Sunday 5 March 2017

We arrived for the race the weather was very cold and sunny. We made our way to our designated pens 15 minutes before the start and the heavens decided to open and the wind whipped up. I could not wait to get going so I could warm up. The conditions were not ideal, but at least the rain did stop in the end. This was mine and Scott’s second year on the trot of running this half. It is a huge event and even increased its capacity to 9,000 runners this year from 5,000 the previous year. Although I did notice the increased congestion for the first couple of miles and struggled to get past people. The route takes you through the city of Cambridge, past Kings College, out to Trumpington and Granchester, before heading back into Cambridge on an out and back loop. There was lots of support on the route around with drinks and energy gels handed out at various points. There were a couple of bands playing on route which added to the great atmosphere.
8 Jags attended this event. Silver standards were achieved by Scott Chadwick, Paul Taylor and Jackie Gooch. Bronze standards were achieved by Claire Owen and Claire Hicks.
PB’s were achieved by Claire Owen and Clare Hicks, both chasing the sub two hours, but could not quite get there.
I would highly recommend this event, great t-shirt, huge medal and goody bag also. They even handed out lager at the end, unfortunately though it was non-alcoholic. The only other criticism was the baggage collection. They did not appear to have enough staff to cover the volume this year, although this was not an issue the previous year. Scott spent an hour in a queue trying to pick up our bags, which was not good when soaking and freezing cold at the end of a race.

Name TimePBStandard
Scott Chadwick1.36.04SILVER
Paul Taylor1.47.04SILVER
Owen Barber1.54.54
Paul Gerber1.57.20
Claire Owen2.01.05YesBRONZE
Clare Hicks 2.02.58YesBRONZE
Stewart Marden2.02.58
Jackie Gooch2.04.02SILVER