‘Race Recap: Oxford Half Marathon’

This event was rescheduled from 2020, I was one of 13,000 people to race around the streets of Oxford – definitely the busiest event I’ve been to post covid!

My goal for this event was a sub-2-hour finish time.

When registering for the event, you had the choice of collecting your bib number from the race village the night before, or having it sent out to you in the post. I chose to pay the extra fee and have it sent out to me, although when I learned that I had paid nearly £5 for it to be posted from Corsham (about 15 miles from me, I could have collected it!), I was a bit miffed! The morning of the race, I drove up to Oxford, a journey that to about an hour and twenty minutes, and parked in the Westgate car park as I was planning on doing some shopping after I was done with the race. At that time of morning, the car park was empty so I had no problems finding a space. I ate my normal breakfast of yogurt, granola, chia seeds and a banana in the car, laced up my running shoes and followed the growing crowd of runners towards the race village.

The race village was situated in University Park, I’m glad that I arrived early as the queue for the loos was a whole rugby pitch long, and there were about 10 queues! Whilst queueing, it threatened rain but after a few drops fell, thankfully, it cleared up. There was a 10–15-minute walk from the Race Village to the starting pens, meaning that I got to my starting pen 2 minutes before I was due to start!

The weather held for the entirety of the race, not too hot and not too cold, although I did quickly regret wearing long sleeves as I did warm up very quickly. Oxford is a beautiful city to run around and the crowds and cheer squads really helped the time move faster. I ran a 5km, 10km and 10-mile PB, but at the 10 mile point I really began to struggle. I started to notice that my feet hurt, and that my hip flexors were feeling tight, and my pace slowed considerably. I even stopped to walk a few times in the last three miles. Still, I managed to put in a little sprint as soon as I saw the finish line which meant that I achieved my goal of a sub-2-hour half marathon.

After crossing the line, I was issued with my medal and a tin of water (very environmentally conscious of the race organisers) and began to walk back to the race village. Upon getting there, I collected my goody bag. The contents of the goody bag were unfortunately nothing special. There was a Kind protein bar, a tin of Budweiser Zero, and a technical finishers t-shirt.

Overall, I’d say that I really enjoyed this race and I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to run a flat and fast half marathon.

by Nicky Marie