Carsington Water Half Marathon

Sunday 28th August 2022

Report by  Steph Millar

I signed up to the Carsington Water half on a bit of a whim. It fit nicely with my marathon training schedule, and it looked close enough to Sheffield. I hadn’t thought about transport though and ended up having to bribe my poor partner Rosie out of bed at 6.00am with a giant coffee.

We parked up at the Visitor Centre where the race started. It had a cafe, toilets and a bag drop, although it was recommended to keep things in cars if possible. Collection was very quick and easy so had a while to chill in the car, regret my life choices and drink Lucozade.

There was a group warm up and we were off. About a mile in, I was informed by a marshal that I was the first female. A feeling of panic sunk in. This meant two things:

  1. I MAY have set off too fast.
  2. I needed to keep this up for another 12 miles!

So, I powered on, channelling my inner Paula Radcliffe, just praying that I would need a roadside bathroom break!

The route was very pretty, although I was pushing too hard to really admire it. It started as an out and back, which gave me a chance to see other runners and even get a few cheers and high 5s. Running back past the starting point, I got some more encouragement from Rosie, who must have now been on her third coffee.

Just one lap of the reservoir to go. The route was ‘undulating’, in other words pretty hilly but what goes up must go down. The paths were gravelly but easy enough under foot and I was glad I settled on road shoes.

I was spurred on by encouragement from marshals and other runners. There were several water stations around the route, which definitely helped.  As there was a 10k happening at the same time, it was nice to see a variety of runners of all different ages and abilities and cheer each other on. I listened to some bangers on my running playlist: Born to Run, This Girl is on Fire, I Will Survive. I even had Chariots of Fire on there somewhere.

Around mile 12, a couple of things happened. First, my headphones stopped working and second my energy levels started to lull. I could see lady number 2 sneaking up behind me and I couldn’t keep up.  I kept on plodding till the end and managed a bit of a sprint finish. Not quite a Paula Radcliffe but maybe for the best…

I was pretty chuffed at my position as second female and for getting a new half-marathon PB. Secretly though I was a little disappointed by the lack of prizes.

After the race, I caught up with Richard Pegg and Nancy Stuart in the cafe. They’d both smashed it on such a tough course. Not sure I enjoyed the race as such, but it felt worth the sense of achievement and the excuse to eat all the food.

Post report note – They have sent me a prize of free entry to one of their events !

3 Striders ran.  The race was won by Andrew Brian (MV40) of Berlin Harriers in 1:22:30, and by Katie Holland (WSen) (no club listed) in 1:38:16

Pos Cat Time Cat Pos
12 Steph Millar Fsen 1:38:51 2
34 Richard Pegg MV60 1:51:19 3
140 Nancy Stuart FV40 2:39:59 140

 

For a full list of results see   https://www.runthrough.co.uk/results/

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