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Mizuno Reading Half Marathon
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Did anyone else think the Reading HM course was longer than 13.1 miles this year ?
My Garmin said 13.3 miles - I can understand it being slightly longer than 13.1 miles due to it being impossible to stick to the "racing line" but the first few miles were spot on before one of the mile markers seemed to "jump forward" at least 200 metres.
The course has been the same for a number of years and must have been accurately measured but, having looked at the ratings page, quite a few people are saying the same thing this year (it's never been complained about in previous years).
The thing is, I can't think of any part of the route that was any different ?
Hi - are the split times posted online somewhere?
I got mine in an email but hubby and son (registered with same email) didn't get theirs...
Another with 13.3, amd I know several other runners that all recorded it as 13.3 on their (Various makes watches. Seems to be quite a lot of talk about it this year for some reason?
Was the start further back than it has been before? That's about the only thing I can think could be different. I'm sure the course is the same as I've done before.
Interesting. Was intrigued enough to get out my memory map and drew it on there. Came out to 13.3m.
Moved the start to the roundabout and it came out as 13.1m.
Anyone got any other mapping software they can use, get an average of various types?
I got 13.26, mile splits were virtually right on until shortly after the 10k when my garmin had a fit and finished the mile 15 seconds fast, then claimed i was running 10mph (I was running 8mph so unless everyone around me also suddenly pushed to 6 min miles it was wrong), after that it was a good .15 miles off until the end.
I started it as I went over the line, and finished it just over the line in the stadium, overall time was just 1 second slower than the chip time.
I'd like to thank the 1:40 pacer, although I did run my slowest two miles (7:41) right with him, which is a little under the target pace, he did a great job carrying what seemed to be an almost unlimited source of water and even some gels. I spent the first 7 miles with him on the horizon after a planned slow start!
He also did well to get everyone well ahead of him around mile 11. I think he must have started towards the back of the red zone and shot ahead after the start line, a number of us were advised past him on the dual carriageway and personally I managed it by 21 seconds so happy with that. Be interested to know what time he got.
Does anyone know how "the tomato" did? He literally shot past a load of us on the pavement 10 miles in!
To echo other sentiments very sad to hear about the runner that died, far too young and walking back there were at least two ambulences and a guy on the side on a stretcher, hope the others recovered okay.
My Garmin recorded 13.47 miles. I wonder if they got upset going under the underpass?
I also did a lot of weaving to overtake 400 odd people form the start to finish.
A bit gutted about the extra .37 as it mucked up my average pace calculations.
My Garmin got 13.27. This was GPS, with a calibrated footpod for any outages of the satelite. I was expecting it to be a little long due to the weaving, but the first few miles were spot on, then garmin started recording miles much earlier (must find that racing line!). I have recorded 13.2X miles for the last three half marathons I have run using the Garmin.
The strange thing for me was seeing the 1hr 30min pacer disappear off into the distance at mile 2 when I was doing fairly even 6:45min/miles. I thought, oh well there goes any hope of a sub 1:30. At 11.5 miles I looked up and the 1:30 pacer was right in front of me almost seeming to be going backwards - I was still churning out 6:45 miles. Really puzzled by that.
I always aim for a longer race and pace accordingly, 13.3 or so though, an extra half mile would have really screwed up my splits.
I wonder if the pacers all try to run small positive splits, kinda defies conventional wisdom though apparently one of the BMF instructions advocates is as the best strategy (he actually says go all out, slow down when you crash, then go all out after you've recovered).
My garmin clocked up 13.31 miles, but it did completely spaz out just after the underpass. It had me doing circles in the adjacent car park and then apparently I took a detour through the Vue cinema, and then decided to come back to the road!!! Im not too worried about the distance though. There were lots of turns, especially through the town centre so unless you stuck to the racing line, you're adding a number of metres on each time you turn. I think it was probably about right, give or take 50-odd metres.
The thing that did annoy me was the ridiculous idea to go through the archway on Abbey Street while they had a load of scaffolding up around it. The bottleneck there was horrendous. Everything came to a grinding halt!
Yes that archway was a bit crackers - I wonder how those fellas in the strap-on car costume got on?
I would be really interested to hear from anyone who set off with the 2:00 pacing group - did they actually make the time - cos I set off with the 2:05's and beat the 2:00 by some distance but only came in at 1:58.
We set off between the 1:50 and 1:55 pacers. As we came towards the underpass we could see the 1:50 guy coming out the other side but we still went sub 1:50, obviously started a little behind him.
I looked back at my old RHM distances last night 13.2, 13.21, 13.25; just the way it is. I don' t think we have another Brighton HM on our hands here.
As others have said, on a course with so many turns, and such wide roads in places is almost impossible to run the line, unless you are one of the whippets at the front.
Having said that, it is a fast course.
Echoing comments about the pacers, they did seem a little random. I decided to run my own race, aiming for even effort. Looking at the splits, it was pretty even pacing, with a slight negative split. I set off well behind the 1:40 pacer, passing him just after the university. I passed the 1:35 pacer halfway along the dual carriageway. Admittedly, my last 2km were the fastest, but I finished in 1:32. I am sure they met their targets, but it wasn't by even paced running.
Yes I remember this very well as I was right behind him when he decided to do that, I was not impressed as I nearly went right into the back of him. It gave me a shock as I thought I was going to fall as I nearly lost my balance trying to avoid him! I was not impressed to say the least as I was starting to struggle at that stage to keep my pace......
Just downloaded GPS details, it claims I hit just under 40mph at 45 mins (must have been just before 10k as I got 47 something for that) and then over 30mph at 47:21, which was probably as I crossed the line.
Definitely something funky on the course, or my watch yet it's never done that before nor since!
interesting posts - my Garmin came in at 21.3km, no problems with it and had hit all my split times.
The weird thing is take a look at the official split times for everyone from first place down in the race results - the 20km splits don't seem to make sense when compared to the finish times. It's as if everyone went 20% slower in that last 1.1km (the opposite of what i saw on the day), which suggests either the 20km split marker was in the wrong place, or the course was 200m long...
Will, the rest of the posts here are three years old, and the course has changed since then, so don't read too much into that.
The 20km mat will have been out (potentially also earlier mats). They don't take the same care with placement of intermediate mats as they will do with the overall length - my splits come out a little funny every year, but the overall distance is fine.
I have no doubt that the course length was accurate. Once you're into the twists and turns of the town centre, with a few tall buildings around you, and the university campus, that will easily be enough to throw GPS watches off. Depending on where you are in the race, you may not be able to run the racing line either due to the amount of other runners.