Hot in Burnham!

I'm sat in the Membury services having a break on my way back from the Burnham Beeches half marathon. The race was staged at Burnham which is near Slough which is about 2 hours drive from home.
 
When I left home this morning it was about 18 degrees Celsius and as I drove from Bristol up towards Burnham it got hotter and hotter so that when I arrived at the race car park it was about 25 degrees by the thermometer in my car. It was also pretty humid and with very little cloud. I suppose that I am already making excuses for my poor time.


The car park was also about 20 minutes from the start line and when I arrived, I realised I had left my garmin watch in my car. No worries I thought, as I had run with just a stopwatch at Malvern. The start itself was in Caldicott Prep School about 3 miles north of Slough and was an amazing place situated in an old mansion house with acres of school fields surrounding it (as well as Burnham Beeches woodland adjacent) and an outdoor swimming pool (more about later). Whereas in most races, toilets are in short supply, this race had toilets aplenty as well as changing facilities, showers and great cakes on sale (although I only tried these after the race).

I wasn't really aiming for a fantastic time so I went out at 7 minute miling and just hoped to stick with that. I passed the first mile marker after 6 minutes (the sign must have been in the wrong place) and the second at around 14.20 so I already knew I was slow. By 4 miles, I was already 30 seconds down on my objective of  28 minutes and although on the downhill sections from 5-6 I maintained my 7 minute miling I just could not keep up the pace to overtake the deficit.

Anyhow, to cut a long story short, it was a really hard race. At every water station, everyone was taking time to walk and drink at least 2 cups of water before throwing another cup over themselves. Unfortunately, this also meant that my socks were drenched and it felt as if I was sloshing around in my trainers (despite the dry day). At the half way mark, I felt as if I had already run the full race and I think that is where I started to slow down dramatically. I reckon that I probably only completed the second half in just under 8 minute miling :-(

But despite this, the race was in such a beautiful place. If it was not for the heat it would have been fantastic. There were plenty of hills on the two lap course, but much of it was shaded and beautiful deciduous woodland paths and lanes.

The race finished roughly as it had started in the school playing fields with about a third of a mile over the grass in the blazing sunshine. This was pretty horrible, with the finish in sight, but the knowledge of several more minutes of hell! Several people caught me up on that final stretch and although I did beat one guy to the finish line in a sprint, my overall time of 1.37.27 was pretty awful. However, everyone said the same thing about their times. Plenty of people collapsed on the finish line and there were plenty of people being told to sit down for a while. There was even a band (Charlie Savigar band) playing at the event which was quite good to listen to in the background even though there were not many people listening in the marquee!

I then went to collect my bag and made a beeline for the swimming pool which was open to runners and families. I had a quick swim and stayed in the pool to do some stretching and loosening up then after changing, I went to support some of the later runners coming in. They had already been running for over 2 hours so were probably feeling even worse than I had felt! The forecast said that it was 27 degrees by noon so I'm glad that I finished before it reached 30 degrees by 2pm!

Definite thanks to the excellent marshalls around the course who always cheered us on. I bet they were glad not to be running.

I am certainly hoping for much lower temps at Bristol at the end of September!