Race Date: Sunday 22nd November 2015

It certainly was a cold one. Ice lay on the pavements, remnants of the snow the previous morning. We all danced and slid our way down the back path from the school to the community hall to pick up our numbers. Still fully kitted out with hats, gloves, buffs, hoodies, tracksuit bottoms, we clung to radiators not wanting to leave the warmth. Eventually we decided we had better prepare so off came all the clobber and with full bags we asked where the bag drop was. ‘Down the back path, to the school’, was the reply. ”What, you mean where the car park is?’,  ‘Yes”. Might as well leave the bags in the car then! On went all the clobber and we trundled off back to the car. After diving into the car for warmth for a short while, we thought we best make our preparations. It hadn’t warmed up and we did our best to warm up for the race with a little jog. However, the ice on the back path curtailed that and we shuffled along to the start line. At 10am, 700 half frozen souls shuffled off on a 13.1 mile adventure. Thankfully, once in action it didn’t take the body long to defrost.

This is a half marathon along fully open roads, some of them particularly busy ones. However, it was well marshalled and cars were stopped at junctions to allow the runners through. Quite a bit of undulation through the course and a bit of a head wind in the second half. That being said, it was a reasonably enjoyable half marathon and the free flapjack and warmth of the community centre at the end cheered us all up no end.

The race was won by Stuart Spencer of Notts AC in 1.10.58. The first woman home was Laura Allen of Totley AC in 1.23.39.

Striders Results