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bristol-vs-cricklade-hm
Hi guys
I'm looking for a half marathon mid-Sept that's well supported, fairly flat with a decent PB potential.
Having run Bath, Cardiff, Swindon, Cricklade I've experienced numbers between 1500 - 15,000.
just wondering pros and cons of each.
PS - forgot to mention I've done just under a 1hr 30..... now searching for a 1hr 25.
All feedback welcome. Thanks in advance!
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Comments
Chippenham hands down. Cheaper, quieter, and much better views! Having said that I think Bristol is possibly a quicker route and you get more support so if you can get away at the start you should be okay.
The Bristol 10k had start pens and the marshalls did a good job of making sure only those with the right coloured numbers were in those pens.
The half is organised by the same people (runbristol) so I assume that there will be start pens for that too.
The bristol 10k was terrible, the timings in the pens must have been so wide. I started just inside the sub 40 line and there were people in there who are probably still running it!
That said, I did bristol half last september and did a 75 sec pb. It is busy first mile or so but its less of an issue in the half than a 10k. It is very flat and well supported. You need the wind to be low on the portway though as that is 7 miles of straight flat up and down and thats where your pb will be made or lost in my experience.
Dont know much about chippenham, however if that is equally flat i would take a smaller field and cheaper entry over a big race.
I did the Bristol HM last year. I found it a fairly flat and fast course and managed to bring my PB down by about a minute, but that was against a PB I set in 2007 at Silverstone and hadn't come close to since then.
Lots of support around the course.