Something special happened in Guildford and Woking yesterday morning, with the launch of the inaugural Surrey Half Marathon.
Over 5,000 runners had signed up for this 13.1 mile road race, including some elite Kenyan runners, our financial planning director Andrew Neligan, and me.
With marathon season in full swing, the Surrey Half Marathon was a great opportunity to test our legs under race conditions.
Andrew has a coveted place at the Virgin Money London Marathon on 13th April and I will be on the start line of the Brighton Marathon the weekend before, ahead of taking on my first ultra marathon in May.
Both Andrew and I had targets in mind as we started the Surrey Half Marathon at 10am yesterday morning. Andrew is keen to go under 3 hours 30 minutes for the London Marathon next month and I wanted to set a new Personal Best at the Half Marathon distance, after running trail versions of this distance in 2012 and 2013.
The weather yesterday was perfect for the start at Guildford Spectrum. After a winter of training in the rain, cold and ice, racing in glorious sunshine and temperatures in the mid teens was something of a shock to the system, but plentiful water stations saw us through.
The Surrey Half Marathon route took us along closed roads from Guildford through Burpham, Jacobs Well, Sutton Green and Mayford, before turning around in Working and heading back.
It was great to finish with half a lap of the athletics track at Guildford Spectrum, with hundreds of cheering spectators resulting in both of us finding the last drop of energy for a sprint finish.
Andrew crossed the line in the top 10% of finishers, in an impressive 1 hour 36 minutes, shaving over 10 minutes off his previous personal best for the distance.
I came home within the top 20% in 1 hour 42 minutes, five minutes faster than my previous half marathon time and a little quicker than I had planned to finish, hopefully not derailing my training for the next couple of weeks!
Entries are already open for the Surrey Half Marathon in 2015, which takes place on 8th March next year.
If you’re a seasoned athlete or would simply like a challenge, we highly recommend this event as a well organised and fast half marathon with a great atmosphere.
