Race Date: Sunday 18th May 2025
Race Report by Jo Gleig

Pre Race

Carol Beattie and I had both been vaguely considering the England Masters vest qualification, since hearing about other Striders successes, so independently we had both thought about Chester Half qualifying race (it was my first in a new age category, falling 13 days after my birthday, so probably my best chance!)

The time standards were quite achievable given our recent past results, but working out if you stand a chance of a podium position (you need to be top three) involves a bit of internet stalking – looking at the Masters ‘Roster‘ website (where runners can register right up to midnight the day before the race), the race entries, and RunBritain to check up how speedy the others were. But I enjoy a bit of stalking so that was fine.

So we both booked a hotel for the night before, after reading Katelyn’s explicit report about just how far away Chester was (much further than Manchester). On the day, the race start was actually delayed by 15 minutes, due to an incident on the A55, to give more runners time to arrive, which was quite nice of them I think, given it is such a big race. So we were glad we came over on the Saturday, even though I did find it slightly odd being out of my routine the night before.

We ate our pasta carbs in the hotel restaurant, then wandered through the streets of Chester (which were strangely desolate but full of revelers at the same time). Then we found Hannah Wright (who was doing part two of the Chester triple) and her friend Alex, and had a drink (non-alcoholic for us two goody two shoes, can’t match Hannah’s gin and cider race prep!) Then back to the hotel for a quick update on the Roster – phew no more Masters registrations.

Race Day

We were both anxious! The combination of being in a hotel, so working out different logistics – (not wanting to bother with bag drop (as race finish wasn’t at the start) so we used hotel luggage store), it being a Masters qualifier, and for me, the previous two weeks I’d had a dodgy hamstring which I hadn’t let recover as I’d kept doing short races, and a painful tooth extraction, so I wasn’t feeling quite as confident about my pace.

We walked over to the Race Course – it’s a great venue for a start, and loos as far as the eye could see! Amazing! Met Hannah and Alex, but only caught sight of Graham Goff in the crowd, didn’t get a chance to say hello. It was warm but not too hot, we were hoping the early announcement of a 15 minute delay didn’t extend further though. It didn’t and we were off at 9:15.

Carol and I started together, our recent half times have been very similar, at just sub 2, but I could tell my leg wasn’t right straight away. I lost her as she kept up a good pace after the second mile. I wasn’t exactly flagging, and I didn’t feel as tired as sometimes after the race, but I just couldn’t go at my aim of under 9 minute miles, so I started to anxiously calculate whether I was even on to get under the 2 hrs 10 min standard.

The course was gently undulating – the profile looked as if it was much more downhill in the second half, but when you are used to local race profiles and forget to consider that the y-axis is only a few feet in total, you are waiting for a lovely downhill that never transpires! So that didn’t perk up my time at all.

The hosepipes from the bystanders were lovely, and there was a lot of support, but my state of mind meant I didn’t really relax and enjoy it at all. The finish up hill back into the town centre seemed to go on forever, the crowds were huge, and I didn’t know how I would find Carol, as we didn’t run with phones, but I found her. She had done brilliantly with just over 2 hours and second in age category.

I scraped in at 2:06:48, well over my Sheffield and North Lincs times, but 3^rd of the Masters registered Age Category (although 5^th of 29 in the actual race). Graham Goff was 2^nd in age with a great time of 1:49:43.

So we won’t get the official notification for a while, but I’m pretty sure Carol and I have now qualified for England vests at a yet to be decided Half in 2026.

The race was won by Corrin Leeming of Western Athletic Club (Isle of Man) in 01:07:21. The first female finisher was Melissah Gibson of Ealing Eagles Running Club in 01:15:49.

Striders result: