White Horse Half Marathon Report by Rhea Douglas
It was a nice early start, on Sunday 7th of April, but sky didn’t look forgiving and the weather report suggested up to 49 mph wind. I was pretty nervous as my partner drove us in to Grove.
He had got up early to come cheer me on and we were both blown away by how Grove had changed over the years (we both grew up in the area).
We saw Ros and Chantelle at HQ and discovered that the start was a 15 MINUTE walk away. (I think I had read this before but it hadn’t quite sunk in.) Chantelle, full of energy, ran over to the start whilst we walked over feeling nervous about the wind and the over cast weather. Then, the
unexpected happened, the cloud cleared and the sun shone!
There was quite a large group of us running from Eynsham Road Runners that day; 15 in total. As we all assembled for the race, we noticed a lone mariachi carrying a guitar on his back. I’m not sure how he must have felt running with that in the wind but he did look great in the race photos!
This was my first time running the White Horse Half so, even though I had grown up in the area, I wasn’t sure what to expect. With the sun out, it was quite a nice run but there were definitely moments where I was fighting the wind. (I don’t recall too many times that it was pushing me on, if any.)
It felt like there a lot of people running alongside so I didn’t ever feel too lonely, not too mention Simon passing on his bike at 4 times saying hello and cheering me on! Passing through Charney Bassett (my early childhood home) was nice, even if I envied the gentleman sat at the table in front of the pub next to the green. I knew I was closer to the end than the start so I felt pretty buoyed up!
As I was leaving Charney Bassett, I told myself ‘you can keep going at this pace until the last mile and then you can go whatever pace you like’ trying to trick myself into to believing I could do the last mile as slow as I wanted! However when I hit the Denchworth bridge and the last mile, I knew
I could (kind of, sort-of) speed up a little bit.
I must admit I was very pleased to see the last stretch which was a little awkwardly placed, just slightly off the road after a bend. I am reliably informed by my partner Will that some people ran past the entrance of the last stretch, in their haste, and had to run back!
All 15 Eynsham Road Runners did really well with Tom Baker placing 11th and achieving a pb. Robert Storey placed 18th and 1st in MV50 category. There were a few other pbs on the day, Matt Daniels, Robin Noble, Chantelle Noble and myself!
Final thoughts.
Even though the race finished in a different location to the start, it was still a WALK back back to HQ. It felt like a long struggle hobbling in the wind and 10 times harder than the actual race!
White Horse Half-Marathon is a pretty popular race in the club championships. It is a reasonably flat half (especially after the hilly Banbury 15) so I would recommend taking part in the future!
There are other championship runs coming up, this year, of different lengths which look like a lot of fun. You don’t have to be fast and its nice to see other Eynsham Road Runners at the end to congratulate each other and talk about how our toes feel! Hope to see you there!
