Bovington half marathon 2017

At 26.6km, this was by some way my longest ever half marathon.  A full-on, good-humoured, quirky, eccentric and very British event, this was a lively trudge through a wasteland of tank tracks and highly technical forest paths.

The lovely Mrs S was in support mode, still recovering her knee.  We arrived in Bovington in good time on a cold December morning.  It was a carnival atmosphere with equal numbers of Christmas and military fancy dress, to the point where I felt I was rather letting the side down in straight club kit.  We met a few familiar faces at the start and we were off.

With the Winkworth boys

At the start line

I had absolutely no idea what to expect.  Mark and Ian Winkworth had advised me that the course was 14.8 miles long, which with a bit of mental maths I reckoned was a little under 24k.  Soon enough we were into forest paths, up some sporty hills and then on to the tank tracks.

Think poorly maintained gravel tracks and then magnify them.  Huge puddles and ruts everywhere.  It was quite a job to pick a path that avoided going into these fearsome lakes.  For mile after mile it was these strange post-apocalyptic gravelscapes alternating with really tricky paths through pine woods.  I managed to stay on my feet, but only just.

For much of the race I was shifting places with Chris Chambers and Jo Meek, which kept it interesting.  We went on and on, and it was difficult to retain a grip of time or space in a weaving course and no discernable sense of direction or landscape.

Here he is!

The last 5 miles or so were tough.  The signage deteriorated, and a few times I was very doubtful of the route.  But the killer was that we actually covered 26.6km.  Once we reached 24, I was already panting and straining for the finish and tried hard to keep it going, but it was mentally tough.  I was gaining on the runner ahead (I'd managed to lose Jo and Chris by this point) but I finished 10 seconds behind him in 4th place, tired but happy.

Here are the results, my Garmin stats and the Strava flyby.  This was, apparently, the last Bovi half, and I was delighted to have experienced it.