Grand Union Canal Half Marathon 2016
Sunday, 13th November at 10am
On Sunday 13th November, John and I did the Grand Union Canal Half Marathon organised by Purple Patch which is one of the leading sports events organisers in the UK. This is a point-to-point race from Cowley Recreation Ground, Uxbridge along the Grand Union Canal to Cassiobury Park, Watford. Since it is not a loop, the organiser has provided shuttle bus service to take those runners who prefer to park their car at the finish, from Cassiobury Park to Cowley Recreation Ground. We dropped our bag at the start and picked it up at the finish.
It was a gorgeous morning. At last I could start to appreciate some autumn glory after so many rainy days. With the accumulation of rain water since the beginning of November, the towpath was still quite muddy. I don’t think this is a PB course because the towpath along the canal is very stony and narrow. Although they divided into 3 (fast, medium and slow) staggered starts, we still got stuck while getting through the gate from the recreation ground to the towpath. I didn’t aim at any good time after falling over 5 days before during training after treading on the very wet fallen leaves due to heavy rain the night before. I suffered a deep gash on my right palm. Not that I use my hands to run but I was very cautious not to fall again. I maintained 10-minute a mile steady pace from the beginning to the end which would get me about 2 hours 10 minutes. And guess what? I finished in 2:10’44” which was within my target. Before the race, John said he felt a little fitter than the Stroud Half Marathon last month and he aimed at finishing in sub 2 and a half hours. 
And guess what? John finished in 2:28’49” which was also within his target. For full results, please visit:
http://dbmaxresults.co.uk/Results.aspx?CId=16421&RId=2153
Apart from the lovely and helpful marshals, quality finisher’s medals, frequent water stations, 2 jelly baby stops, bananas, muesli bars, water at the finish, I must give credit to both the commentators and th
e official photographers. When I was waiting for John to cross the finish line, I noticed the commentators called out the names of most, if not every, runners approaching the finish line. This is a huge boost to the runners. Almost all runners started to sprint after hearing their names were called out. They might be a couple of seconds faster but hey, every little helps!! The official photographers are from Sussex Sports Photography. I must admit they take fantastic race photos with perfect angles, perfect lighting and perfect sharpness. They also charge very reasonable price compared with the company taking photos in the London Marathon which I think is just so overpriced.