Race Report: CTS Exmoor Half Marathon 13/04/2013

My journey started at 11:30pm Friday night for the 5 hour drive down to Exmoor following the motorways all the way down I reached Exmoor about 5am finding a layby 5 miles from the race start I managed to get a couple of hours sleep before heading off to the start at 8am for the race briefing.

We were directed onto the race car park then we had a 2 mile walk down a very steep hill to the start and registration, there was four race groups running today ultra, marathon, half marathon and 10k I was very glad today I was only doing the half as the hills were unbelievably big respect to the ultra and marathon runners.

 After a race brief the half marathon started at 10:30am starting in the valley then you had to run up a very big hill to start with for the first 6 miles to the highest point which ended up in the mist and clouds, this was sometimes a frustrating point in the race for me because as soon as we started to climb the hill some people started to walk without even trying to run up it and there was no passing points until the top…what ever happened to never, never give up guys, the views going up were breath-taking a trail runners paradise.

The course was a very tough one in all fairness though with massive hills all through the race I am very glad I saved some energy for the second half of the race so I could keep on running all through the race as from mile 10 to 13 there was a good number of people walking up the hills by then as the course had wiped them out understandably too.

I ran the race in 2hours 16mins 80^th / 309 which I was pleased with I lost a lot of time in the first half but the second half of the race was more consistent running.

The facilities for this race were ok with a changing tent and drinks at the start, and I noticed two drinks stations around the course with jelly babies too. The toilet queue was massive which was the only let down to an otherwise fantastic race with a great atmosphere I would defiantly do this race again and recommend any of the CTS Trail series they rock.

For more information about CTS Endurance Life events check out their website.

Mat S.