Race Report: English Half Marathon 10K course: 20/09/2015

Having graduated from the couch to 5k, to 10k, I have well and truly caught the bug for running and racing!  So this Sunday saw myself and fellow strider Moe Dutton turn up at Warrington for the 10k course as part of the EHM run festival.  With Phil Truman and Wendy Barnes taking the full challenge and running in the Half. 

 This year was the 7th English Half Marathon with the addition of a 10k Road Race Challenge and a LiveWire Mile Challenge, all with new routes. Every runner received a medal, t-shirt and goody bag at the finish line. 



We booked only 2 weeks out, so we needed to pick up our race numbers either beforehand on either Friday or Saturday or on the day from 7am. I opted for number pick up before, making the pre-race build up all about finding the parking and standing in the toilet queue. 

We made our way down to the start about 08:30am, with clearly marked racing gates for both 10k and the Half, having found our spot in the 50-60 minutes area. We settled into a few stretches and chatted to our fellow runner keeping one eye on the pace marker at 55mins. The sun was out, no wind but fairly cool perfect conditions. At 09:00 am the race was started, chipped timing meant that we were started in waves.

With the watch started we made our way out of the town centre, out on Knutsford road. With a combined field of over 2500 runners the atmosphere was great, a sea of runners making our way to the 2km mark where the fields was separated by a fork in the road. Much to our relief to know we would get carried away doing any extra miles.  At this point we were continuing to keep our 55min pace man in our sights and settle into the pace as we ran through residential street on to the Trans Pennines Way.

Along the TP Way we passed the 4 km marker, and things stared to look familiar as we had picked up part of the Warrington Parkrun route, following the TP Way into Victoria Park.  Out of the park back towards the town centre winding out toward the Warrington Wolves Stadium which made for an interesting twist. Running straight through the stadium, pitch side complete with cheer leaders and out back on to the course for the last 2k back to the finish through the Golden Gates.  For the 10K sections at least this course was flat and fair straight forward little bit of a looping in the park section but over all a great course, well organised and supported! 

The course, the atmosphere and friendly nature of everyone taking part spurred myself and Moe home for new PB’s, 54:54 for myself and 55:08 for Moe and Phil Finishing the Half in 2:10:59. Will certainly be running this one again next year maybe even the Half distance who knows…..  

For more information, visit the website.

Gillian