I entered this race as I had 22K lined up on my marathon training plan and it seemed like much more fun to run this than to slog out those miles by myself. I entered late so my race pack wasn’t posted to me and was there to pick up on the day.
How easy is it to get to?
The start is situated in the centre of Southampton. The city can be accessed from the M27 or the M3 and the nearest train station is Southampton Central which is only 10 minutes walk away.
What is the parking like?
As you’d expect, there are lots of car parks in Southampton. Westquay is a large shopping centre with lots of parking. It’s open 24 hours a day and this is where I parked then walked around 15 minutes to the race village via the high street which was great for grabbing a coffee in Starbucks and several quick loo stops!
Here’s how I found it…
The night before…
I’m usually buzzing with nerves and excitement but feeling a bit of dread creeping in tbh as I’ve missed quite a bit of training due to that thing called LIFE 🤣
I can tell I’m resisting as I haven’t chosen my gear yet or sorted gels etc. This is sooo ridiculous as I was longing for real races to come back!! Some people are never satisfied 😂
Still. I don’t have to run the whole thing. The weather is looking good too so I think my goal will just be to enjoy myself.
I’d been feeling underconfident about this Half Marathon but the odd thing was I had a great night’s sleep the night before and when I turned up for the race I wasn’t nervous or anxious at all. So weird. I think it was because I’d decided I was going to walk whenever I wanted, take pics and just have a great morning in the sun. There was no music blaring when I arrived either and I bloody loved that-I need calm and birdsong to soothe me before a race (which is what I got) rather than blasting noise which just winds me up. It’s my age 🤣🤣
PLUS. The shortest queues I’ve ever seen for the loos 🙌🙌 I might come back and run this race again solely because of that 🤣 It wasn’t because there wasn’t many runners-it was just they were SO fast at using the portaloos. In and out in a flash. Incredible.
The crowds were awesome in their support and the local residents did us proud with water sprays, bubbles and actual long tables of food for us to grab as we passed by 😍
And this explains why I was sick at the finish 😂 A nurse handed me one of those pulp bedpan things they have in hospitals which was lovely of her but what was I supposed to do with it afterwards?! I asked her and she suggested the portaloos. And post race the queue was longer. So I just lined up with my bedpan 🤣🤣
Then I collected my t shirt and the lovely volunteer got a bit worked up as she couldn’t decide if I was a small or a medium.
“Either,” I said “it’s fine.”
“Oh deary me-I just don’t know!” she wailed. “Have a banana.”
Who would I recommend this Half Marathon for?
The route is a mix of road, parks, shoreline and riverside. There are a few hills to contend with-not paricularly steep but you feel it! Lots of people opted to walk them, as did I. I think it’s a good choice for your first half as there were lots of runners just out to enjoy the day (rather than PB) and other runners told me it’s always like that. This made for a relaxed atmosphere through the race, at the race village and start line. I wouldn’t travel miles to do it as it’s not a ‘stand out’ event or bucket list material but if it’s pretty local to you, give it a go!
