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Hillingdon Half
My daughter is doing this as her first HM on Easter Monday. Just wondering if anyone has any experience of it - how busy it is, how well organised etc. Thanks.
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No reviews inclines me to think ok run, just not very memorable, as no rants or gushing 1st timers comments.
When I ran it, it was a round the houses finishing in the high streets sort of run so while it may be a newish run I don't suppose Hillingdon has changed much.
Perhaps get your daughter to write a review afterwards so that future runners can get an idea of what its like?
I'm running this one. It uses only about half the old course which went right down to the A40.
Can't imagine why some runners go ape about some 'halfs' and not others. After all, they're all just a strip of asphalt. (Ok Watford has a lane full of mud and water).
🙂
I ran it last year and enjoyed it. Bit of a 'round the houses' course in places - had to keep an eye out for cars coming out of driveways and shoppers crossing the footpath in front of me! But it was a reasonably fast course, very friendly and great for parking (in the university). Surprisingly low key, but I assumed that was because it was the first year for the event (for a while).
This was a well organised event, very low key as Pipes said, and even more so thanks to the weather. In one sense a nice introduction to a half for my daughter as it wasn't crowded. We were able to cheer her on at a couple of points thanks to the looping course and her boyfriend cycled much of the route - not with her I hasten to add! I would say the difficult bits were the fact that it was on pavements and roads that weren't traffic free so, again as Pipes said, it was a matter of dodging obstacles, but all in all a successful first race for her and a good event.
Glad you thought it was a good event for your daughter and that she had a positive experience, JaneyH. I really enjoyed it - even more so after discovering how close it was to being cancelled because the winds had created even more potential obstacles on the course that they had planned! I was worried people would have a gripe about the extra little bit of distance due to the re-routing. Perhaps I would have done too if I had been close to a PB, but thankfully I was several minutes slower than that so I can have some perspective.
I can't believe what a good price it is for a half marathon, with all the bits and pieces you get afterwards!
With the 10k that they've added recently it does mean a little bit of overtaking now for the faster HM runners, but I guess that's part of the fun of a big event. This year they seemed to have an issue with a couple of "illegal" runners towards the front of the field, which meant they missed a 250m section of the course, but all in all greatly run!