Arley Hall Cheshire Half Marathon

The Cheshire Half sent out an email this week offering tips for running in hot temperatures. Saying thing such as ‘don't be afraid to adjust your pace’ and that ‘starting out too fast and overheating is not the best strategy to run your best race’. Hmmm. Who are they kidding?

We drive up to Arley Hall for the 9.30am start and park right next to the start, which is a refreshing bonus compared with some of the long walks from car parks you get these days.

The temperature is many degrees cooler than it has been, so there should be no need to use the suggesting tactics of slowing down. The route takes us through the Cheshire countryside and is largely flat. The countryside only really offers views of grass, hedges and of course tarmac, so there’s little to distract me from my task. My partner would have hated it, as there's no window shopping, so it’s perhaps a good job she’s not doing it. Although instead she’s looking after the excitable dogs, which she’s also not enjoying much.

I run at 7:30 pace for the first half of the race and then at a 8:00 pace for the second half, producing a 1:42 which was satisfying enough.

All three of the drinks stations had bottled water, which made refuelling and cooling down easy. Despite this, some people had taken the advice to carry a bottle or wear a camel bac, which slowed them down enough for me to overtake them.

At the end a decent t-shirt and in my goodie bag apparently also a medal. Oh and a flapjack that the dog tries his hardest to extract from the bag.