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Hi sazzerw

What time did you do in the end? I know we were both worried about the sweeper bus, not sure I saw it unless it was an ambulance? There was one going slowly alongside me at one point but the fumes nearly choked me!

I finished in 2:56. my first half marathon and under 3hrs which I was hoping for, totally enjoyed it (even the last 3 miles which really got me, particlularly the last mile which seemed to last forever!) I did enjoy the experience though and will find it hard not to come back next year and I'll aim to do it much quicker.

 Well done everyone

Hi Sazzerw

I have had the same concerns as you, this is my first HM too, I am hoping to finish in 3 hours and was thinking that if I needed a walk break or was a bit slower would I really have to hop on it after all the work I had put in too. When I read the info it did say if you didn't get on the sweeper you regained pedestrian rights so I suppose you could still run but stick to pavements (might be tricky on the A33 though) ??

Anyway, I am sure you won't need to worry, everyone assures me that the crowd and atmosphere will carry us along and we'll finish quicker than we expect on the day, so my bet is you'll be over the finish before the sweeper.

Good Luck and enjoy it.

Thanks very much for your help everyone. That info was really useful and will help me prepare (mentally more than anything LOL!)! I am also now well aware of the dual carriageway stretch at the end, so near bit so far eh?

I'm not too worried about congestion as the vast majoity will be well ahead of me by then ( I am looking at a sub 3:00 finish, 2:45 if I am lucky on the day, although I jhave a few weeks yet to get faster) am up for a PB whatever I do as this will be my first Half Marathon, my longest race so far has been a 10k YIKES!!

 Good Luck to all of you running Reading  

The car parking info will be available at the end of January the web site was saying the other day.

All going well here managed to do 12 miles on Saturday so really really pleased )) it was my longest run ever. I tried taking jelly babies en-route this time took 4 at 6.5 miles and another 4 at 8.5 miles, although I need to try it a few times to see if they really do make a difference, early inidcations are that they did!

So what is the score with the Reading half course? I have read varying reviews, some say no real hills to talk of, an experienced runner has said its really challenging, someone else told me there were 3 miles of hills??!! I want to make sure I get enough training in these last weeks leading up to 29th March, can anyone tell me literally what the course is like please Even better if you've run it using a Garmin and have a log of it on Sports track would you be able to email it to me so that I can see the elevations?

Thanks

Hi All

I class myself as a beginner at running and have entered my first half at Reading at the end of March.

I have 11 weeks left before the big day so there is still time for some decent training, I am looking for some advice on the best ways to push up to those last few miles to make every session count.

I have been training for about 3 months now and can comfortably run 8 miles, I  have managed a couple of 10 milers too, I am going out 2 times a week. My main goal is to finish the half which will be a big achievement for me and speed is not an issue, I am happy to plod along and keep going and expect finish time to be around 2:45.

 I am guessing for the amount of time I will be running for I need to consider taking some sort of energy boost as I am pretty much hitting the wall at around 9.5 miles and finding there is nothing more to give, I have just started taking water with me.

I was told that if I can do 10 miles, pushing another 3 would be easy but from my recent experiences I can't see that being the case with me.  Would my best strategy be to work towards endurance and aim for more than 13 miles in training given that I am not looking to increase my speed? I am not exactly following a specific schedule just making sure that I go out running regularly and increase my distance when I feel my body is ready to go further.