On Sunday 24th October, I took part in the Stroud Half Marathon. I started this event in 2006 and have only missed one year in 2013 when I was suffering from a bout of flu. Then it was cancelled last year due to COVID-19 restrictions. All runners who had registered were automatically differed to this year. The organisers were unable to offer refund as they had already paid the UKAA for the licence and the local authority for the expenses incurred for road closures. John didn’t enter this event as he has put on quite a lot of COVID-19-work-from-home-comfort-eating extra weight and doesn’t feel fit to run that distance albeit he can walk 30+ miles in one go but when it comes to running, half marathon distance is a challenge. John accompanied me to Stroud to be my supporter this year instead. We left home the day before. It took us nearly 3 hours to drive from home to Stroud due to traffic on M4 Motorway. We checked into the Premier Inn in Stroud which is about 15-minute walk to the start line. On the race morning, I couldn’t find my Comets vest. I realised I had forgot to take it with me. This was the first time I forgot my Comets vest.
It was a perfect morning for running with the temperature in mid-teens and overcast. It was understandable the number would be less this year but still over 600 runners took part which was about half of the pre-COVID time in 2019 and every year before that. To comply with the COVID-19 rules, we started in waves. There was no grand depart, no mingling before or after. There was no live band between mile 9 and 10 with fanfare performance. On the ground of Marling School, runners were advised to keep 1-metre distance when queuing for toilet and dropping their bag. It was a bit wired the start line was a lot quieter than before. And it was even sadder to have been told to pick up the finisher’s medal, pick up the bag and leave the venue as soon as possible after finishing the race. At the end of the day, running events are not just running the course, collecting the medal and leaving the venue in a hurry. It’s about runners and the atmosphere. These missing elements are what holding the running communities together.
I received the race information from the organisers a few days before saying that they wouldn’t provide any cups or water bottles at water stations as part of their responsibility to support global sustainability. They wanted to reduce the use of plastic. They asked runners to bring their own drinking vessel and the marshals would fill the water for us. I used a carabiner to hook my cup to my bum bag. You can see from one of my photos above runners were carrying camel bag or water bottle. But to my surprise, all 3 water stations provided disposable plastic cups so I didn’t need to use my own cup.
There weren’t any finisher’s t-shirts this year either as a proactive move in lessening the environmental impact. The organisers said the technical t-shirts are made of materials derived from oil-based plastics which are polluting to the environment during their manufacturing, and every time they are washed, they distribute small amounts of harmful microplastics into our water supplies.
To further support the green initiative, they gave away wooden finisher’s medal. I am not an environmental expert. I guess wood is more eco friendly than metal. We can grow more trees but we can’t grow more metal. When we need more metal, we need to mine and mining could be bad for the environment and the eco system. As a commiseration of the lack of finisher’s t-shirts, all the official photos are free-of-charge.
It was a tough run for me. I hadn’t run any distance longer than 10 miles since I finished the Milton Keynes Marathon on 29th June. I haven’t been training much because for most part of October, I had been busy at work plus I had been preparing for the British Computer Society (BCS) Chartered IT Professional Practitioner examination which took place on 21st October three days before the Stroud Half Marathon. I spotted the two- and half-hour pacer at the start so I stuck with her. I finished in 2 hours 27 minutes 17 seconds. I was just so relieved I got around. The last mile was always the best atmosphere with the locals coming out of their house to cheer us on because I needed it.
This year could have been marked the 40th Anniversary of the Stroud Half Marathon since its inception in 1982 but due to the cancellation last year, we’ll have to wait until next year to celebrate the 40th anniversary. Well done to everyone who took part in this fantastic event and kudos to the organisers for holding the event. I look forward to coming back next year and hope to see the easing of the restrictions.
