So firstly let’s deal with elephant in the room; the Nuffield Health Shrewsbury Half Marathon organised by “In the Running” was actually a 12.6 mile race due to a mistake in how the course was marked.
As the race was not cheap to enter (£22.50), sponsored and organised by an events company, I think this was inexcusable and left a lot of runners very disappointed.
Even more frustrating was that it was only through runner’s forums and news media that I found out about the error. I still have not received any e-mail from the organisers and there is no statement on the race website. In a statement to the Shrewsbury local press the race organiser blamed a marshal without accepting any blame himself or apologising! As I had problems with my GPS watch during the race I somewhat naively didn’t question my time when I crossed the line. It was only when I got home and realised the pace I would have had to run if it was a half marathon, that I realised that something was not right. Annoyingly, if I had completed the missing 0.5 mile in my average pace for the race I would still have finished in a new PB.
In the interest of fairness I will try and write the rest of my race report without too many references to this error as I did genuinely enjoy the race. The race started and finished at the County Showground in the centre of Shrewsbury. There was plenty of parking at the venue but I chose to park in the town and walk to the start to avoid the £3 fee. My number and timing chip had been posted to me a fortnight before the race along with very clear race-day instructions. I found out subsequently that some runners had to pay the Post Office £1.10 as the race packs were held by the sorting office. The race HQ was excellent with free pre-race massage and bag drop, as well as plenty of space to warm-up. The start was somewhat chaotic. I think the intention was to start the 1500 runners in waves depending on likely finish times. These groups were carefully arranged but nothing was done to separate them. This meant that when the first group (<1hr 30min) was started all the other groups just followed, resulting in a single mass start. This meant that the first half mile was rather tricky as the route was narrow with a number of sharp turns. Apart from this minor issue the course seemed great as all the roads were closed and it was well marshalled. There were also plenty of water stops along the route.
The course had two very different sections and was run in reverse compared to last year. The first 6 miles wound round the picturesque streets of Shrewsbury. This was surprisingly hilly but really well supported by large numbers of spectators. The second half of the race was a loop that went out into the Shropshire countryside. The majority of this section was uphill apart from the final couple of miles when you dropped back down into Shrewsbury. Although the support was more limited in the second half, the views made up for it. As for my performance, I set off at a steady pace and managed to keep this going around the town despite the hills. My main memory of the early stage of the race is seeing an old woman leaning out of her window just after the first water station, shouting at each runner who dropped their bottle to “pick it up!” As the race went on I started to feel stronger (presumably helped by the longer distances I’d run earlier in the year) and I was able to increase my pace. This meant that I completed the 12.6 miles with a negative split. At the end of the race, runners were rewarded with what is undoubtedly the worst goody bag I have ever received! It contained a medal, a rather uninspired white cotton T-shirt and an unappetising cereal bar.
In summary there are reasons to recommend this race. The course is challenging but really enjoyable and the support around the town was fantastic. Unfortunately, the catastrophic cock-up with the course, the issues with the race pack and the disappointing goody bag mean that many (including myself) will avoid it in the future.
Fran