Clare W, Louise & I had been looking for runs with good medals (or any medal for that matter - Louise was very uninspired by the buffs awarded in a 10K earlier this year) - and Wimbledon came up as an option.There are 3 half marathons organised every year on Wimbledon Common - and at £20 for affiliated entry, seem good value for money, especially given that medals and t-shirts are in the deal. We chose July & entered.
Panic ensued when the organisers announced that the medals would be tennis racquets instead for the July run - any medal is good, but let's face it, a womble is so much better. We also worried that our friends & families would be led to believe that we'd given up running for tennis. I think that others may have been (even) more vocal in their feelings about this change as a subsequent announcement "clarified" that the racquets would be in addition to wombles - not instead of. Phew.
So, 6:30am on a sunny Sunday, Clare picked Louise & me up & drove us to London. Little traffic and despite dire warnings, easily found a parking spot close to the start. Again, despite dire warnings, there were loos with acceptable length queues.We could tell we were in London as the catering included a posh expresso van!
I was really chuffed that my manager's manager came along to see us off (he lives near by).
The route was good:
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| Weird tags |
- 2 loops
- Tagged - but needed a degree in engineering to work out how to fix to shoes. And they weren't recycled at the end which didn't seem very womble.
- First 1.5 miles were uphill - and miles 7-8.5 thanks to the laps. This worked out well as it was over early on - and we knew what to expect in lap 2. The rest of the route was flat or downhill.
- Car free! In fact, there were points where I could have been in the New Forest - apart from sounds of distant traffic and that the horses we saw all had riders on.
- Didn't need trail shoes - but suspect that they will be essential for the October run.
- Varied scenery - woodland, common, parkland and a windmill.
- The water stations weren't where advertised, but all had plenty of water bottles, making it easy to keep hydration up on a warm day.
The marshals weren't exactly engaging - but did seem to cope well when a runner fell ahead of me & Lou. We would have appreciated more directions at one point, but it was OK.
Clare soon outran me & Louise - she had a great run. Lou & I tackled it as a team, which works well for us when not chasing times. We entertained ourselves by freaking out passers by - saying "good morning" seems akin to establishing eye contact on the tube. Sadly, ran past a sleeping homeless bloke in lap one - he was awake & on his 1st fag when we passed him on lap 2.
No wombles spotted en route - but my Mum pointed out that they may have all been underground, out of the sun.
We finished the run with a local runner who thanked us afterwards for chatting to her as it kept her going.
At the end, Clare pointed out where to get our womble medals (not obvious) and we finished with a picnic on a playing field.
Traffic wasn't great coming home & we were lucky to get past an overturned horsebox on the M3.
Many thanks to Clare for driving & organising us and to Lou for being such a good running partner. Photos are Lou's.
- Clare W: 2:12:32
- Louise: 2:29:01
- Me: 2:29:02
