Author: Jackie Gooch

Coltishall Jaguars very own damp dozen travelled over the Cambridgeshire border to take part in a very wet Peterborough Half Marathon.

First Jag home with a PB and Gold Standard was Jack Stuttle in an outstanding time of 1:28:37. Sonja White made light work of the puddles as the first Jag lady in a time of 1:47:06 a Silver Standard while also grabbing a PB.

There were also a PBs for Katie Fenn, who secured a Bronze Standard and Stephanie Hall who was helped along by Andy Mulligan.

Graham Fryer ran the distance for the first time and looked full of running at the end so PBs and standards await as his improvement continues.

Also running a half marathon for the first time as Jags were Lynn Lambert gaining a Silver Standard and Karen Bradley running with Sharon Jones both coming in with a Bronze Standard.

Karen Evans again broke the two-hour mark while claiming a Bronze standard.

Sue Emnett and Peter Kean-Cockburn also completed a very wet Half Marathon.

Despite the conditions, did I mention it was raining, the crowd support on route was still pretty good and special thanks has to go out to the marshals and volunteers out on the course.

All in all a well organised event on a flat city centre based event with loads of PB potential which most entrants return to.

I took a last minute entry and I wasn’t disappointed. It was a lovely early start of 8.45am, with the marathon and relay races starting at the same time as the half. It was mild day, with no wind and with an initial damp start it turned into a heavy downpour however, I always find the rain quite refreshing! The route started in Victoria park and headed out of Leicester down London road toWatermead park. This is the point where the half splits from the marathon and they head out towards Syston. The half return back, taking the scenic route around Watermead Park and along the canal passing the National Space Centre and through Abbey Park. It then zigzags through Leicester city centre before returning back to Victoria park to the finish.

Would I recommend this race? – Yes Why? – Very well organised, an early start and plenty of free off road parking. I also loved the route with lots of twists and turns on the return after the half way point.

I ran this race last year and hated every minute, feeling tired and achey. I finished in over 1:24 which was not far off my PB so could not understand why I’d felt so low. Howard reminded me that I’d given blood 5 days before the race. When the Blood Service staff give you the little card telling you not to do anything strenuous for 24 hours, I ignorantly thought it only took 24 hours to get over giving blood. No, apparently it takes up to 2 weeks! This year I decided I had to put this race to bed. I didn’t give blood 5 days beforehand, I had a sports massage and hydrated well instead. While driving to Banningham, I realised I could not remember anything about the race last year, other than crossing the finish line on the village green feeling glad it was over. Oh, and the excellent W.I. cakes plus the cute train medal. I had a quick warm up run with a Ruth Pilch and then we were off. I started off running with Ruth and Sonja White who were setting a good pace and once I was past my 4k settling in distance, I was running comfortably and pulled ahead. I took in more of my surroundings this time too and appreciated the friendly marshals plus lots of Jags who had turned out to support. Usually I don’t go in to a race with a time in mind but I had three things I wanted to beat: my bad memory of this race, my lack of mojo from the summer heat wave and my Freethorpe 10 PB of 1:20. I’d got my PB in January when I was Marathon training so I’d decided to use this race as a benchmark to see how much my mojo had come back! I sprinted across the finish in 1:19 and I’m over the moon with 5 minutes off last year and 1 minute off my PB. I had my first sniff of a prize too as I was in the 3rd placed Over-40s Ladies Team with Emma and Sonja. The W.I. did some amazing cake again and there was some chunky bling too! Here’s last year’s finish photo and this year’s finish photo. I think my expressions say it all!