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Birmingham Half

So how did we all do? Very cold (late) start, sudden narrowing a bit of putting, but soon got into my stride (such as it is) passed the 'Running For...' whoever it was on their T shirts..walking at mile ooooh I guess 0.5..anyway...& got 1.37.32, 1min 20s faster than last year, I shall take that I think.

Comments

  • BlinkybazBlinkybaz Posts: 1,144
    Thats a great time O Frituy one!
    How was the recovery!?
  • BritspinBritspin Posts: 1,655
    Legs stiff & sore, upstairs OK, downstairs a world of terror & appear to have a sore throat(?)
  • BlinkybazBlinkybaz Posts: 1,144
    I suppose the sore throat is from the cold air?
  • Morg007Morg007 Posts: 54
    great time Britspin

    I did 1 hr 45 mins 39 seconds... very pleased as I thought it would be 1 hrs 50 plus.

    But that has got to be one of the worst pieces of organisations for an event I have ever seen. Way too many people. If you want 146000 people racing so as to maximise revenue then have staggered starts with start times based on your predicted times. I ended up near the front having had to climb over the barrier to get onto the course due to the carnage and lack of information to get you to the correct starting point. I looked around ready to walk back along the course and saw lots with same coloured numbers as me so stayed where I was. I avoided the bottle neck and still took over a lot of people and didn't have many take over me so I must have been in a good starting position for my pace

    and then there is actually getting there. No signs directing people to car parks, you kinda had to "wing it" and even though its sponsored by the EDF and we were encouraged to travel there on public transport and car share there was hardly any public transport as the trains don't start on a sunday until after the start of the race! plus the carbon footprints were probably bigger due to the lack of signs as people drove around aimlessly looking for spaces to park.

    but the final piss take was the fact that I heard a lot of people had to wait over 5 mins to do the last few yards of the race due to congestion after the finish line. My boss who did it for charity so simply wanted to finish did 2 hr 17mins but he recons 7 mins was spent getting through 10 yards to the finish lie!
  • It was my first HM so I was eagerly looking forward to it. However, I have to admit I was let down with a few major errors.

    First of all, I know brum very well so I thought the diversion routes would be ok. But no, I ended up going round the city centre about 4 times looking for car parking as every road sign for car parking was for car parks opening when shops opened i.e. not at half 8 in the mornning.

    Second, as said above the start was an absolute mare. I had to climb the barriers to get to my section and when we actually started we all had to stop again after 10m as the road bottlenecked. Plus because of the crowd trouble it meant I had to pass literally hundreds of people in the first mile who were clearly in the wrong place (maybe not their fault).

    I do feel really sorry for the people who had to wait at the end also, that would piss me off!!

    But to be fair, I did enjoy the race. the crowds were very good, including that woman with her dj decks after cannon hill park.

    And with a 1.26 finish on my first HM i shouldn't really moan about it.

    Would I do it again? Maybe..
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