PROVISIONAL Helphire Bath Half-Marathon - Page 34 - Events

Blisters

20/03/2005 at 23:40

Hope she's OK U(/I?) Keep up the fluids intake. Not you, her.

21/03/2005 at 08:43

U/I - hope Mrs is recovering now.
Hilly, RD - sorry to hear you had to pull out. Hope you're feeling better.

It was good to meet all the people who came over to say Hi. I enjoyed seeing the race from another angle - it's the first time I've realised that some runner come back into a fairly empty field - it's usually pretty crowded when I get there! A fairly exhausting day, though - much easier to run it, I think.

Happy running.

Dibley

21/03/2005 at 08:57

well done everyone! The event was much better this year, vowed i wouldnt run this race again, because of the dreadful organisation, so glad i did. Pb in 1.21.45! Roll on FLM! 4 weeks AH

GMAC

21/03/2005 at 09:04

A few pics, The Mrs and me looking a bit knackerd at the end, like the bunny girls :)

http://staff.bath.ac.uk/ccsgtm/bath2005/bath2005.htm

The (Original) Boy Wonder

21/03/2005 at 09:21

Results are on the race website

Well done Race Director and all your willing crew

Graham "legs in threads"

21/03/2005 at 09:41

Excellent weekend in Bath. The plan for Suday was to be well within 1:30 and to beat last year's time if I could. Started off in the sub 100 minute zone and found myself steadily passing people around the first lap. Got to 5 miles in 32:30 and 10K in 40:40 which, although well down on PB pace I was pleased with. Found the second lap harder than expected (particularly the uphill finish). Went through 10 miles in 65:40 and got embroiled in a race between two Bath City ladies (Sarah and Tina?) going hammer and tongs - managed to get between and then ahead of them on the last hill and had a lot left in the tank for the run in to the finish. Managed a 1:26:30 (which included an enforced loo stop) - more than a minute up on last year so am reasonably pleased. A really good event yesterday - well done to the organisers and to the very many volunteers.

RogerDodge

21/03/2005 at 10:24

Morning folks - It was great to meet up with so many of you before and after. Especially after, as usually most people have left by the time I get in! Appointment with phizz tomorrow to get the low-down on the leg - fecking painful this morning though now that the anaesthetic has worn off.

BB - Thanks for the supportive hug - and congrats to BD, make up for last year's disappointment.

Stace - great to meet up with you and UFM. How's your shoulder and UFM's knee this morning.

LLL - I saw you finish and went to the funnel to meet up with you but couldn't find you anywhere.

Undulating - please pass big hugs to MrsU - hope she's OK. With any luck I'll see you at Frenchay. I've started a sub-group within the club - Hogweed Hobblers!

Also a big 'well done' to the organisers. I wasn't there last year but heard the horror stories. It's good to see when organisers take the comments on board and actually DO something about them. From my own perspective I would make a couple of comments - firstly, the starting time markers were in minutes as opposed to hours:minutes. I heard a lot of confused comments about this and I know from talking to some of the earlier finishers that people were definitely lining up in the wrong places. One 1:18 finisher told me he overtook several people with hooded coats who were clearly in the wrong place. On the other hand, it was almost impossible to get out of the Rec before the gun went off. Perhaps an earlier call to the start would be more appropriate next year.

Ken Baldwin

21/03/2005 at 10:25

Bring back the t-shirt, what use is a medal? I like to wear my t-shirt after the event with pride, but I can't wear the medal down the gym can I? At £21 to enter, they should be able to afford both and provide bottles of water at the end.

I wasn't keen on the fill your own goody bag at the end, sort out the organisation as this is a great race.

Maxine Smiles

21/03/2005 at 10:37

Agree with the comments about fill-yr-own bags. If they were so keen to get people out and away from the funnel (as they were shouting) why slow it all down by not pre-filling the bags?

Also RodgerDodge I agree with the comments about placing at the start, it was clear that many people had no idea where they should stand. A complete mix of walkers, fun-runners and racers all together where I was.

If this race continues at this scale or (presumably) gets busier then they will have to start segregating based on speed, not just when you turn up at the start.

Ken Baldwin

21/03/2005 at 11:08

If they don't sort out the organisation of this one, then they will discourage people from entering again. I have dones this three times now and was witness to the fiasco of last year. They shouldn't have increased the number of runners this year until they had managed to get it right with the usual number of entries.

Don't get greedy by increasing the number of places again, sort out the problems which you had. Reading the reviews there are many people who are now saying they may not run this again. This would be a shame, but I can see where they are coming from.

Stace.

21/03/2005 at 11:12

Good Morning All who were there...
R.D...
My Shoulder and knee are sore this morning.
UFM's knee proved to be a mystery. It took us nearly an hour to help her limp back to the car (after running 1:39), but by 6.00pm
she had no sign of any thing??? What makes me mad is that she went out for a fast 5 miler with swim coach last night!

My time (would you believe it?) is exactly the same as Bristol Half last yera... to the second!
Should have put a bet on...1:47:11
Pleased with that although I felt it was a personal best as i think that Bath is a much tougher race than Bristol (more drag hills).

Was good to see the other Forumites just before the start for a pre race photo, I don't know who had the camera but I woud love a copy.
Hilly...
Both UFM and I are gutted you had to pull out and hope you are ok for the Elite line-up at FLM!
I have never ran this race before and did think that a small bottle of water at the end would have been nice and why did one of the officials suddenly decide that no more bannanas were to be given out because too many people wanted them????
What were they there for then?
I must say all in all I enjoyed the event as a whole right from the " forumite meeting" right through to the "feeling like sh*t" in the pub at the end.
Well done Bath Half If I can get in I'll deffo be back next year!
Stace.
{:o)¬<

Graham "legs in threads"

21/03/2005 at 11:26

You seem to be in the minority KB - can't understand what you're moaning about - from all I experienced and saw yesterday it was a good well organised event and most people went away happy with smiles on their faces.

Ken Baldwin

21/03/2005 at 11:37

Graham, if you look at the race reviews you will see that a lot of people have some compaints about this one.

Not saying I didn't enjoy it, but there was a lot which could have been done better.

Aidan Naughton

21/03/2005 at 12:09

I enjoyed the race and it appears they've sorted out the problems that occurred last year. I have a query about the provisional race times. My time is shown at 1.45.07 which was pretty much the time I crossed the line to be manually "chipped" by one of the stewards. However, I crossed the start line approx 1 min 36 after the start. I didn't run with a monitor/watch but was v. confident that I'd completed in sub 1.45. Is there a degree of error for events of this size or is just me? This is only my second half marathon.

Aidan

GMAC

21/03/2005 at 12:17

The time by my watch was 1:47:14 official time is 1:48:02

Pressed start/stop as I went under flag so pretty sure my time is correct, there was a bit of a queue before I was "chipped"

slugger

21/03/2005 at 12:23

Thought that most/all of the organisational problems from last year were sorted out and thoroughly enjoyed the race.
The 'fill you own bag' thing was slightly bizarre especially as my hands were too sweaty to open my bag.
Everything else was pretty damn good; not really missing the t-shirt either since last year's version lasted all of about three washes!
Liked the 10k markers as well!

old father tim

21/03/2005 at 12:24

My time is 14 secs slower - it took me this roughly long to cross the start time - are these gun rather than chip times ?

In other races I've done using Championship Chips my times tend to be spot on (give a take a sec). Still get the impression there are probs with the armour plated race nos that Bath use..

Aidan Naughton

21/03/2005 at 12:32

My immediate thought when I saw the prov. results was that the times were based on gun to chip. The only other race I've done was Bristol last year, with Chapionship Chips, and my time was pretty much spot on (again I ran without a monitor).

Aidan Naughton

21/03/2005 at 12:37

I should have read the website before opening the results :

"Please note that in accordance with UKA Rules of Competition the official results (used for calculating prizes etc) are based on gun-to-chip times."

Corsham Snail

21/03/2005 at 13:11

I can only guess that all of you who were happy with the organisation were in the start area and able to cross the start line within 2 minutes of the gun. That seems to be where everything went well

If like me you were one of 500 or more runners stuck on the ramp up from the rec when the gun went your experience would be very different

No chance at all of running smoothly for the first 3 miles because the speed grading of the filed was destroyed, and a pick your own goody bag method in heavy crowds that failed badly

It was a race of two halves

Still, if the half I was part of doesn't show up next year - as I won't - there will be more room for the rest of you