Clowne Half Marathon

Today we are in Clowne which is midway between Worksop and Chesterfield, all for a hoodie. This is the second time I have run the Clowne Half Marathon. The first time was in 2015 and they insured that I would probably never come back when they handed me the red race t-shirt with Santa and his Elves on it.

Well, would you believe it, the following year they scrapped the Christmas themed t-shirt idea and started handing out hoodies instead which were not red and didn’t Santa or his Elves on them. Various folk, you know who you are, have been flaunting these must have articles of clothing ever since.

So here I am. L, clearly not a hoodie chaser, isn’t joining me in the race.

The run itself is undulating, obviously, and is a jaunt through several local villages. It goes well and I record a 'ok' time of 1:45:48. Which I then compare with my time in 2015, which was on the back of doing 1:40:01 at Leicester but was 1:50:16. Hmmm. Today’s time is perhaps not as rubbish as I thought.

Again the injuries have stayed away but, I’m sure, the moment I enter my target race of April’s Manchester Marathon...

Clowne Half Marathon

Today is my first crack at the popular Clowne Half Marathon. Just myself and 800 others make our way to the Clowne Community Centre for the start where the weather is cold but there’s hardly any wind or rain, yet, or would that be snow?

It’s a playful course with nicely undulating terrain but no massive hills. It’s certainly not a quick course. Parts are very scenic but other parts, like the A619 Chesterfield to Worksop road, are not. This particularly long drag from mile 11 to mile 12 with cars whizzing past your heels at 60mph was not the highlight.

As I once again have a dodgy calf I take it easy but I hadn’t intended taking it 1:50 easy, ten minutes slower than at Leicester. It’s a decent workout though and a decent race. It's chip-timed with drinks in bottles and with a goody bag that takes two people to lift.

The goody bag contained a Lucozade sports drink, an iPro Sports drink, a banana, a Tunnock’s caramel wafer (all the way from Scotland), a small Soreen Malt Loaf, a Warburton’s six pack of crumpets and the obligatory assorted leaflets. You could also top it up with their homemade flapjacks.

Then there was the Christmas Theme T-Shirt in red, naturally. Oh dear. The less said the better about that but they’ll be plenty appearing in the charity shops in the next few weeks.