A spitfire and a lady - the Gosport Half Marathon

We have family who are members of Gosport Road Runners, who organise the Gosport Half Marathon every year in November. They have been bugging us to come down and run it for a few years now - Andy did get down to the race in 2022, but had some dubious excuse last year about waiting until her foot was attached properly to her ankle again. So this was the first year we had both managed to make it down.

Although a week ago I was far from sure it was a good idea. The previous year's event had been held in pouring rain, and the Great South Run across in Portsmouth a few weeks ago had actually been cancelled due to the weather - apparently the insurers were less than keen to allow the event to go ahead when the wind was gusting up to 50 mph. So this area doesn't have a particularly good reputation for weather in the autumn, at least with me. And as of last Sunday, the forecast for the event was heavy rain  showers and 20mph winds for the entire period of the event. However, by midweek, everything had changed, and the actual weather for the event was pretty much perfect - no rain, light breeze and about 9C. I'll take that.

The event is well organised by the GRR, and very well supported. The route is a 2 lap half marathon, going out each time along the coast road through Lee on Solent, and then coming down to the promenade at Hill Head and returning along that. Turn point for the second lap was just up from the start. Roads were closed as needed to allow the route, and it all seemed to work very well.

My previous half marathon was 1:58 in Budapest in September, in 25C of heat, so I was going to be interested to see how this one went in somewhat cooler conditions. The first half-lap outwards was just a question of getting into a stride and finding a place in the crowd - the event has 1500 runners, so the early stages are inevitably a bit congested, but it didn't take long to straighten out (with my usual moan about those people who are obviously running something near a 1:30 but decide to start at the back of the pack and try and come through everyone). I was running between 5 and 5:10 kms, which I was happy with, and had settled into a rhythm.

First problem was just after the turn. I was feeling that I was working harder, but there was no reason for it - no hills on this route - so I glanced down at my watch, and saw a heart rate over 170. Not good, and no logical reason for it having kicked up like that. I backed the pace off a bit, and saw it come back down to the mid 140s. That'll do. It never went back up again like that for the rest of the race, so I'm still not sure what caused it. I let the pace settle back up again, and got the rhythm back.

There is a small airport nearby, so aircraft noise is not unusual, but the sound behind me stood out. "You know, that sounds like a...". Glances up. "spitfire!". That was great - the pilot buzzed backwards and forwards along the route for the next hour or so, and it's always great to see that aircraft flying. I tried not to look up too often, as its not conducive to running on a busy promenade!

The next distraction was the lady in the bikini crossing the running route just in front of me - not something I was used to on a UK half marathon in November. Looking further round, there was a small sauna on the left of the running route, and the sauna-goers obviously were used to cooling off in the Solent 20m away. Except that this morning there were 1500 runners they were trying to get back across to get back to the sauna, which they probably hadn't planned on! I vaguely wondered how long they would try and stay in the sauna before running the gauntlet of crossing the run route again, but I was still not round lap one, so the job was to kick on and keep moving.

The turn point worked fine, and since the runners had spread out by now there were no congestion problems on the pavement back into Lee on Solent on lap 2. I was still hitting 5 - 5:10 kms, heart rate was good, and I remembered to pick up the water station this time. However, somewhere around the 10 mile mark, an old friend came back to bite me.

I've had a intermittent problem for years with a cramp in my right hip after a certain amount of running - something called the piriformis,  apparently. (No, I don't know what it is, and I may have spelt it wrong). It just starts to feel like a lot of hard work to bring my right leg through the stride. I thought I'd got rid of the problem with some gym work, but it looks as if I may need to look at it again. Anyway, although aerobically I was fine, and the heart rate was on target, my km times were falling off, and is was certainly feeling harder to keep the pace up. 

Still, home leg now. The samba drummers helped - they were pounding away with considerable flair in the Monks Hill car park. Back along the prom, across the nasty bit of gravel that they only put there to annoy parkrunners, and back along the front. It was now just a case of pushing through it to get home, so I have no real memories of what else was going on along that part of the route. Back up to the road, back along the cycle path to the turn point, and this time I could go straight on. Turn right down the road to the finish, round the corner, and you could see the finish arch. Always a good feeling. Last push, and in at what my Garmin reckoned was 1:48:49. My vague target was 1:50, so I was happy with that.

Many thanks to the Gosport Road Runners for their organisation, and Tom and Honor for putting us up. Its a good event - I'd happily recommend that one to anyone looking for a late season half.