Sunday 22nd March was the 2015 Wilmslow Half Marathon. It is not an event that we have not done before. The start was on Kings Road near the Wilmslow Rugby Club at 10:30. The event was full well before the date of the event, there being 5000 entries.

As the event was being chip timed, there were sign posts along Kings road showing expected finish times, up to the 2 hour mark. We started by this sign as we were hoping for a time between 1:50:00 and 2:00:00. There were lots of balloons up around the start, which seemed a really nice touch.

There was quite a long period between the gun to start the event and when we got to cross the start line but it didn’t matter as your results were based on your chip time. We soon found that maybe we should have started a little further forward as we seemed to be running a little faster than those around us – which meant we had to keep dodging around them to get past. However things did get a little more spread out as the race went on.  Thankfully the roads had been closed, although some of the roads we went down were not that wide.

About three miles into the event, we heard a commotion behind us and turned round t find three horses galloping down the road. People were jumping out of the way and yelling at those in front, which seemed to spook the horses even more! It was certainly eventfull!

The last two miles seemed very tough and even tougher to Andy who was struggling – he seemed to have some kind of low level virus which made it harder for him. It was a pleasant day and quite warm when you were in the sun, which can make things seem a bit harder, especially when your are tired. However, although the last couple of miles were a little slower, we finished in 1:58:43.

Our half marathon PB (personal best) was at the Conwy Half Marathon last year and was 1:58:01 so it was still very close to that. We had thought that the Wilmslow Half Marathon was going to be a flat course but in actual fact it was very rolling. It appears that the total elevation gained over the whole course was actually very similar to Conwy! The event was really well organised and there were lots of marshalls along the route – a big THANK YOU to all those involved.

There were 4072 finishers,  the winner was in 1:04:57 and the last one having a time of 3:15:18, so we in 2620 and 2621 positions, just over half way though the finishers. The full results can be found here.

The course can be seen below:

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Afterwards we went to the Boddington Arms where we met up with some friends (Janet & Richard) that we see at the various running events that we do. As always, it was great to see them and to catch up!