Arriving in Chester in good time, I parked and walked to the start area, Chester Racecourse. The Chester Half is one of the bigger halfs, with 7000 runners entered. There were seven striders taking part in this event, John Wright, Chris Holden, Christine Bunte, Lucy Lee, Phil Truman, Karen Lovatt and myself, being such a big event, I never saw any of them beforehand, as it was a sea of runners.
With half an hour to spare, I dropped of my bag at the 'bag zone', and did the pre race routine of checking my shoe laces umpteen times! multiple toilet trips and lastly a warm up. At 9 o'clock prompt we were sent on our way, out through the city centre and out to the suburbs. I had no game plan for this race, if I could do a sub 1hr 30min, I'd be pleased, but I didn't want to put pressure on myself. However I was in good shape, having run some good 10k times, and 10 mile race times.
1 hr 30 min pacer a good way behind me I realised I could be on for a fast time.
The route then meandered back down the country lanes towards Chester,and I was still able to hold a 6 min 30 sec mile pace. The course on the whole is relatively flat, with a few undulations, however at mile 12, there was a nasty sting in the tail, with what felt like a long uphill mile to the finish, it hurt to say the least. Back in the centre of Chester, we had a 200 yard sprint, to finish down the narrow cobbled streets, with a mass of cheering supporters to finish under the clock tower. I was a little dumbstruck to see my finishing time of 1hr 25min, knocking off 4 minutes of my previous pb. John came home in 1hr 41min (pb), Chris Holden in 1hr 54min (pb), Christiane in 1hr 54min (pb), Lucy in 1hr 59min (pb), Phil in 2hr 7min and Karen in 2hr 22min.
This is a great race, well organised, with lots of support from the locals, even live bands on the route to keep you going, thoroughly recommend it.
For more information, visit the race website.
Tony