Farnborough Half Marathon 2019

I ran the Farnborough Half Marathon for the first time at the weekend and wanted to review what turned out to be a great little race.

Logistically its mildly complicated – the race has a 3000 runner limit and rapidly outgrew the parking facilities at the business park in the middle of the aviation center so there are shuttle buses laid on from the town center car parks. I was very grateful to be able to sponge a lift from friends, getting dropped around 50m from the start.

Once there, registration and bag drop was painless, but although there were a lot of toilets, the queues were also significant. There were some dedicated urinals at the back which I suspect many hadn’t seen and could have helped.

The event only started in 2017 and has already experienced some epicly awful weather. As it turned out it was very cold, but dry and brightened up as the race went on – the starting pen is under the restored airship hanger, but is exposed and cold, with wind funnelling between the buildings. I’d carefully wrapped up warm and made a last minute dash for the baggage drop but there were a lot of runners deliberating on what to actually run in. Some of my more athletically built friends struggled to warm up on the run.

After a short walk from the finishing pen to the start proper, we were off under a traditional inflatable banner. A lap of the business park quickly dealt with, within a mile or so we were out on the closed roads (the first two times the event was run there was some hills/trail in the business park – the general consensus seemed to be that the course was much better for the changes). Well marshalled, and with a sensible course design the impact on other road users actually seemed to be well minimised and everyone spectating was in good spirits and supportive.

I think to describe the course as flat might be misleading, but with only 93m of climbing over the whole 21k, gradients (while long, in some instances) are gentle and easy to power through. The first/last 7k of the course is ‘out and back’ but unless you are either very fast or very slow, this is unlikely to cause you traffic issues and it’s pretty good knowing what’s coming as the distance starts to bite.

Two big water stations at 3k and 7k (and so at around 15k and 18k) had a large number of volunteers handing out full bottles of water, but I was glad I hadn’t decided to run on at the 7k station as that then felt like a healthy gap.

There were mile markers every few miles, so I was glad I hadn’t managed to stuff up setting off my garmin this time round.

Most of the course is on simple tarmac; there was a slight shift to a more rustic surface as we ran through the army golf course, and there was a short stretch of cobbles in the business park that may have been uncomfortable for anyone in really lightweight shoes.

I’ve not done a huge number of half marathons, but nonetheless was delighted to set a PB by over six minutes, running very consistently over the distance with only the sixth kilometre having enough vertical climb (13m) to make any dent in the pace.

The first half of the last k is a steady gentle climb – as I rounded the final bend I planned to kick as we descended again, but was largely foiled by the wind we’d experienced at the start, blowing strongly against me.

At the finish I was handed a brightly coloured penguin medal, a goodie bag containing a decent amount of instantly consumed race snacks and a water bottle similarly stuffed with samples. Photographs (including the one at the top of this post), supplied by R&R photography were included in the cost of the event.

A good day out!

Details can be found here: http://www.farnboroughhalf.co.uk/