Bath Half Marathon
IT wasn’t all plain sailing for the Bath Half Marathon.
Stubbies Jon Henderson and Dave Marrott were among the 10,000 runners who had to wait for an hour for the start because of teething problems at the popular west country race.
Jon explained: “The race was due to start at 11am, but there were some pretty major problems with the park and ride, as well as contractors not showing up and delivering the medical tent.
“Faced with having to call the event off, the organisers borrowed a marquee from one of the sponsors and delayed the start by an hour.
“All this was combined with the runners’ village on the Recreation Ground in Bath that had turned into a Glastonbury-esque quagmire in rain that had persisted for 24 hours! Standing around in the cold and wet for an hour is not ideal preparation...”
However, every cloud has a silver lining and by the time the race started the rain had stopped but it was still pretty wintry and blowy in places.
The course was a two-lap affair, pretty flat with a cheeky incline or two on the way round - especially the final mile.
“The crowds were fantastic and overall it was a great race,” said Jon. “Just a shame the organisation was a bit of a cock-up this year.”
Dave completed the course in 1hr 34min 50sec, position 887th and Jon finished in a time of 1hr 38min 42sec, which was a new personal best for 1,507th. He went through 10 minutes at even seven-and-a-half minute mile pace for 75 minutes, which was a new PB.
Kenyan Raymond Tonui went one better than his older brother Simon, who was runner-up 12 months ago, by winning the men's race in a time of 1hr 5min 21sec, with 52nd-placed Wendy Nicholls from Cirencester AC the leading lady in 1:13.33.