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Reading Half Marathon
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I'm not THAT slow!
Maybe I should try running without a watch. I had aimed at 10 min miles in reading but felt so comfortable at a faster pace. Found myself worrying though whether I should slow down. As it turned out I didn't really suffer at all at any point ( apart from feeling bloody cold during the last 3 miles).
I almost feel I didn't actually push myself too much which I suppose is a good thing.
And after those long training runs on my own it felt a pleasure!
One woman compared it with having a baby. not sure it was quite that bad. memorable...well yes.
Anyone heard from annajo?
I know there were problems but Chris and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Did 2.06 which is a pb. Probably be back next year. Thanks to Hippo for organsing food at Holiday Inn.
Pat, great to meet you and Gill, Chris says it is frightening to think there is someone else as mad as me out there!! I think she means you not Gill!! Will e-mail you 2morrow.
but if they had let us pre order, and i DID ask
Not your fault at all mi dear. We were all having such a larf anyway it didn't really matter that the pasta arrived just in time for breakkie!!!!
Will download the photos then see about posting them somewhere unless you all pay me huge amounts of mars bars not to!!
guts ahoy!
Especially if you are travelling on your own as I was. Marshalls were friendly, even when I forgot my chip and asked for my bag back off of the lorry at the last minute they were most obliging. I too enjoyed the finish in the Stadium. It was a long wait for that much needed hot bath, but I did enjoy the race nevertheless.
Sorry didnt get to meet any forumites there.
Always next year...... maybe!
I am the managing director of Sweatshop and I wanted to let forumites know about the causes of the three main problems we had, what we did about them and what plans we had made.
The traffic problems at the start of the race appear to have been caused by taking the traffic down to one lane at the Imperial Way roundabout (this was done as we had shut the A33 to run on - something that is not normally done when football is on - it was purely done for the race) - we sorted the cause of the problem at 9.00am - we removed the cones and directed people into Madejski Stadium as the Hewlett Packard Car Park was full - this also enabled us to manage the problem and put on extra buses to get people to the start.
The situation at the finish with the crush was caused by a combination of many factors. First we had to get the runners through the finish and out of the stadium to avoid a backlog in front of the finish line - we thought that giving people space blankets immediately would cause them to slow down and stop straight away. At 1 hour 30 minutes after the gun had gone at the start, the sun was still shining, the sleet and snow did catch us out - even though we had checked the forecast. The baggage lorries were too close together and our own marshals had problems getting the space blankets apart once their hands had frozen. As soon as we saw the crush on the CCTV cameras we took down the fencing.
Next year we will increase the space available to detag - put on the space blankets and give out the goody bags - we had taken a huge amount of time analysing this part of the procedure - and we are gutted that this part that we organised let us down.
I know that hundreds of people set Pb's on the course.
We reduced the number of complaints by Reading residents and businesses to a single one during the duration of the event. An all time record.
The course, the start, the marshals, the water stations, the crowd support, the number of loos and the majestic finish with about 4,000 people cheering runners home meant that the majority of people went home very happy.
We are disappointed that some of you had a less than happy experience.
I hope that my small explanation goes some way to showing you just a very very small part of what we did on the day - I can assure you that we will make the Reading Half Marathon the event that people want to run in, not only to get a PB, but to experience the camaraderie of what we do.
Please feel free to email me at hugh@sweatshop.co.uk should you wish to 'talk' to me directly.
We need your support and we do value your opinion.
Thanks for your explanations Hugh, I have emailed sweatshop seperately, but I do feel that the pluses outweighed the negatives overall, I have been in races where the marshalls are bored and uninterested, not enough loos and little or no support on route - but, as you say, the gliches at the end need sorting. I will be doing this again next year, there are not that many events that are as encouraging to the plodders at the back as they are to the faster ones at the front.
Just one thing - the 'goody bags' now something serious needs doing about that -
i intend to be back next year anyway
can Sweatshop fix the engineering works on the railways
The only thing that ruined the race for me was the weather, and I don't think I can hold you responsible for that! Other than that I thought it was a great race, an excellent course and great atmosphere.
I would have liked my space blanket (and a hot bath!) as soon as I finished but I can see why that didn't happen. Next year you will probably have the space blankets first and it will be boiling hot and everyone will want water first!
I will definitely do this again (assuming I survive FLM!).
Thank you to all the people that made this day possible.
Hugh - thank you for this post.
PS Bet Soreen don't sell many of these awful bars!!!!
I actually found the cold helped me recover!! (aka Paula Ratcliff's ice baths??)
Will def be in it next year too.
Well done Sweatshop, will see you soon for some new trainers...
Tom
Do not apologise for the food service at the holiday inn, there is absolutely no need. It was good of you to arrange everything for us and if we hadn't all been so busy nattering we might have realised earlier that the time was getting on. Thanks again for organising us.
Seaweed, sorry I didn't get to meet you. We went off to the bushes for a P and when we came back everyone was lined up! maybe next year, although I will be aiming for under 2 hours next year (in my dreams).
Hippo - don't you dare beat yourself up over the food at HI. As others have said, if we'd not been so busy nattering we'd have realised things were running a bit late.
barty - lovely to meet you and I'm so sorry to hear about the blisters.
Crosscountry Pat - lovely to meet you too and sorry about calf injury. RichK has a site www.richk.co.uk where forum piccies and info are held. I've already sent him mine and I'm sure he'd welcome yours too, especially if there are any incriminating ones!
Barty sorry to have missed you aswell ,well done on your time.
Hipps are you doing flm as i feel guilty not coming back as i said i would but i couldn't get out of the stadium.
Hugh thanks for coming on here to explain the situations for us .I have run reading 3 times before (old course)And this was by far the best,the finish was great although that last loop seemed for ever,so well done and thank you and see you next year.
Perhaps the blanket in the goody (if you can call it that) bag would be a good idea. Some goodies too would be nice.
But don't worry I don't think anyone gets it 100% right every time. We will still be back next year.