Runners World Trailblazer South Bedgebury Review from Jemma

Rat Race Bedgebury Pinetum Runner's World Trailblazer Half Marathon Review

This is my first half marathon and I was pretty nervous on the fact of doing a race without any water dips, cargo nets and ….................... MUD. With the previous outing at the Dirty Weekend at 20 miles and with prep runs over the half marathon distance I knew I could do the distance. It was a case of how long will it be till Liam saw me at the finish line. 

Nursing a sore rib injury from a self inflicted bike error 2 weeks previously I was just at a comfortable to run stage. The great thing about the guys at Rat Race is that they just don't set you all off at the same time. You are let out in minute intervals based on the estimated time you think will do the race in.  My best times for 10K races was the hour mark so for doing an half marathon a good reasonable guess was a 2 hour 30 min finish. By staggering the groups the hope was that we would be separated from
the Sunday walkers and barely joggers. For me this meant my only issues were getting the Nokia Mix Radio going on my phone and getting past a girl running with her hands flapping around like she was wading in the swimming pool doing doggie paddle. 

By the first drinks station at mile 4 I had started to find my rhythm and was beginning to relax whilst enjoying the beautiful countryside views.  Bedgebury has a lot to offer in that sense and of course hills to add to the challenge.  There were a lot of grumbles on some of the climbs by others in a group I was keeping up but these were not much of an issue given the hills I've been tackling in training. I seem to be able to pick runners off on the climbs and then be overtaken again on the flats so plenty of climbing suits my running. 

It was a warm early June day with glorious blue skies so I was thankful to have opted to run in a Domyos vest top and some new Under Armour shorts and of course my Inov-8 Trailrocs.  These came in handy with enough grip to handle all of Bedgebury had to offer, I didn't need anything more aggressive and my Terraflys wouldn't have struggled on some of the sections which needed the grip the Trailrocs offer. Having lost more weight recently my sports wardrobe has started to shrink dramatically but my clothing choice left me neither too hot, or too cool which I see as a positive over such a distance. 

Everyone I spoke to at the finish time all commented on the last climb and will agree was a tough one as you climb to the what you think is the top actually is a bend round with another 100 meters of hard climb left before the end point.  On finishing and with my phone used as my time keeper I clocked 2 hours 17 Min's to the finish which was confirmed to be correct by Rat Race later that evening. Significantly less than my expected 2 hr 30 Min's time and I'm now hopeful I can beat that time at the Runner's World Trailblazer North at Clumber Park in a few weeks time before I go to
Spartan Race in Manchester in July for my next taste of MUD.