Gosport Half - the race of cake? Race Report

"It's laps of a semi derelict MOD airfield."  Not possibly the most inviting prospect, but Louise must have made Gosport Half Marathon sound good as I was keen to run it this year - and Louise was up to repeat it.

2000 runners apparently.  The facilities at the start were fine with enough loos, baggage drop off, massages available and even the opportunity for a cup of tea.  It was in Louise's old school - she's a Gosport girl - and we'd parked near her Dad's home just a few streets away.

The start was vaguely segmented by times - we just ensured we weren't too far forward.  Louise spotted a former colleague who kindly took our final pre run photo.

Flat, yes.  The route had an impressive number of miles away from traffic - making use of Daedalus airfield but also wide tarmac cycle paths.  I actually found the airfield bit interesting, making our way past derelict MOD buildings from the 60s, 30s and earlier that would make for some stunning apartments.  A boat building bit smelt strongly of solvents! Other highlights included a filling station and lots of wire fencing.  Not too much congestion as most of the paths were wide and well surfaced.

 We appreciated a drumming band that the route took us past lots of times.  

The most scenic bit was at the end, along the shore at Lee on Solent back to Gosport.  I appreciated the wind free, dry and cool weather - high wind would have been serious hard work!

Great to see a former SRS runner Jennifer marshaling - and cheering us on with gusto.  And a lovely surprise to see Mel G who's just graduated from our beginner programme supporting us at the start.  Pat was there too - but unable to demonstrate any bias as she was a referee, coping with random incidents like a scooter insisting on riding over the chip timing mat at the end - strange.

Donna, Sam, Louise and I cheered Sally over the line.  I think we managed 3 PBs today - me, Tanya & Sally.  And it was Sam's first ever half - so an automatic PB for her!

And then we moved onto the cake. Goody bags had proper fruitcake, flapjack & chocolate biscuits.  Demolished the former & then enjoyed a rather good fatless sugar free fruitcake that Sam had brought (need the recipe!), then a piece of Running the World's flag cake.  And a chocolate biscuit courtesy of Louise's Dad to finish off.  The sugar high helped with the tedious queue of traffic homewards - and meant that I got home still feeling buoyed up by a rather good run.

Dawn 1:51:05
Verity 1:57:11
Gin 2:13:51
Louise 2:14:11
Sam 2:26:33
Tanya 2:26:30 - a PB I believe
Sally 2:46:51 - this is 15 minutes faster than her first half!
Jo - can't find her on the provisional results

CC6 - Kings Enclosure - Race Report

Glorious autumn colours, gleaming in the sunshine - mornings like this are one of the reasons why I love running in the Forest.  We started from the area near Fritham that's used for a number of the RR10s and CC6s.

I thought we had 9 runners today - an impressive 3 teams - but then Bridget & Nikki arrived rather breathless at the last minute having got a bit temporarily misplaced on their way from the car park.  It was a good warm up/cool down opportunity length trek to the gathering point - and then a second walk to the start.  I have to admit to being a bit bemused as to why we didn't start at the gathering point & add a little to the distance - but that is being picky.  Being Remembrance Sunday, it was good that we observed a silence before setting off.  Claire ran with her poppy intact - most impressive.

Paul Hammond photo

Did I mention it was muddy?

"F-ing challenging" was the rather accurate description given to the route by one of us afterwards!  Yes, there were lots of hills, but none would have been overly taxing if they weren't covered in gloopy, trainer tugging mud.  And there was water.  And slippery leaves.  It was really obvious afterwards that Sarah N had thrown herself into the cross country ethos with mud splatters up to her waist on her clothes!  And Sally had some rather fetching splodges on her face - a bit like a Hollywood heroine emerging from a forest adventure.  I did check with the marshalls en route if we were looking glamourous - apparently we were - so all good.

Paul Hammond photo

4.2 miles with a loop in the middle.  I did get lapped on that, but it wasn't too bad.  The volunteers were good - positioned so that the route was clear and all gave us encouragement.  It took me over 51 minutes - a useful reminder of just how much difference terrain and gradients can make to a run.

We joined Sally to run her in at the end - she did incredibly well and was buzzing afterwards.  I was particularly impressed with Jo C's performance too as it was her first cross country since returning to running this year.  

Our results (remember these are positions, not times):
Siri 32
Sarah N 33
Claire D 39
Dawn 47
Bridget 66
Wendy 67
Nikki 68
Gin 69
Jo 71
Sam 73
Sally 75

Lordshill 10 mile - nice race, would've liked a medal

Race report for Lordshill 10 mile 

It was pouring with rain when I left the house on Sunday - last year's Lordshill 10 mile was incredibly wet so I wondered if it was going to be a repeat performance.  Blue sky appeared though - and held.

There were just over 500 runners in the sports centre where we started.   Proper loos, well organised baggage drop and rather good technical t-shirts.  No chip system which surprised me a little.
There were just 3 of us from SRS - me, Siri and Linda - so just enough to make up a team for the league.  I was very pleased when Linda asked if we could run together once we'd established we'd be around the same pace.  We quizzed a colleague of mine about the route - tales of rivers to ford and acres of mud.
Luckily, he was wrong.  And the rain held off.   Linda & I set off a tad to quickly (my fault as usual), doing a weird dogleg before heading north to the other side of the M27.  We were mostly on lanes that were not closed to traffic, but good, active marshaling seemed to keep the cars at bay without any aggro. 
I love running through countryside I haven't seen before - and this run delivered giving views that I'd only glimpsed at part of from the motorway.  I am regretting not taking a few photos en route.  Not too wet - certainly no rivers to wade across this year!  Chatting to Linda made it very enjoyable.
The marshals were particularly good - as I expected as Lordshill do deliver on their claim of being a friendly running club.  Informative, very encouraging - although 1 did give me false hopes of a beer at the end.
Towards the end, their support was very much appreciated, slogging through the industrial estate and Nursling felt hard.  I did muster a little energy for a sprint finish.
1:23:20 for the amazingly speedy Siri, 1:42:24 for me and 1:42:25 for Linda.  Later, the rain returned - I can't believe we stayed dry for the race.
Do this race next year, it was good.  Maybe they'll get some medals....