Wycombe Half Marathon

When: July 10th 2016
Where: West Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, UK
Course: Mostly cross country and small rural villages
Other routes touched (walk): None
Other routes touched (Cycle): Chilterns Cycleway
Finish time: 2:15 (slow!)

The Wycombe Half has taken me a while to get round to. High Wycombe didn't feel very inspiring as a venue, but mostly because its a Summer race and I'm happier running in the cold. I had a free morning and noticed that entries were still open, so I signed up a week ago. It probably wasn't the best idea as I had a party the night before and did more wine-loading than carb-loading. Despite lack of sleep and a bit of grogginess, if felt relatively fine in the morning. The weather was also helping as it was a chilly July day with enough rain to be cooling but not enough to be a nuisance.

The start and end location, the Wycombe Wanderers football ground only confirmed by feeling that it would be an uninspiring run. The stadium is at the back of a trading estate in the arse end of the town. As it happened, the first and last miles were the only boring bit and the rest was lovely countryside and small villages to the west of the town. After mile 1, the route went into the West Wycombe Estate, with views up to the hill surrounding the Hellfire Caves.  The next few miles went off-road through the estate with some steep, muddy hills an grassy sections. This is definitely not a Half to get a PB on. The middle section took a big loop out the the South West passing through small villages like Frieth and Lane End, before returning back to the start via the Estate.

The combination of the previous night's party and taking it slow to avoid pre-Ultra injuries kept my speed very low. My finish time was 2:15 which is 20 minutes slower than my normal effort. I was still pleased with it though as it was a nice way to spend a rainy Summer morning and a final bit of practice before next week's mega-run.