The Apperley Quarter Marathon

On Sunday, my husband, sister, brother-in-law and I all took part in the Apperley Quarter Marathon. The Apperley Quarter Marathon is a local race based in the village of Apperley, near Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire. It has been going since 1983! We’ve seen it advertised many times and always thought it would be nice to take part, but never quite got round to it.

A quarter marathon is an unusual distance. It is 6.55 miles – just a bit longer than a 10k, which is 6.2 miles. Obviously I intended to run it like a 10k. I’ve run three 10ks this year, having only run three 10k ever before that, and am getting pretty good at them.

The Apperley Quarter Marathon is part of our club’s off-road race series. We’re not taking part in the off-road race series, but thought it would be nice to go along with lots of other club members there. But mainly we decided to run it because we’d dropped our daughter off at university the previous day and needed something to take our minds off our empty nest. Oh, and it was my birthday too! This year, running on our birthdays has become a bit of a thing. We ran Weston Super Half on my brother-in-law’s 40th and we ran Cirencester 10k on my husband’s birthday.

The Apperley Quarter Marathon is a real community event. It is organised by local people and based at the local cricket club (which reminded me a lot of Dymock cricket club, where the Dymock half marathon was based). All of the medals are handmade and there is a big stall selling local jams, chutneys etc. All proceeds go to charity, which this year was Breast Cancer Now.

The race took place 36 hours after some horrendous rain which had caused flooding in Cheltenham town centre, just eight miles away. The course is half on the road and half off road. I’m not generally a fan of running in trail shoes and will always opt for normal trainers unless the conditions are really bad. But I’d got some new trail shoes for my birthday and felt it would probably be sensible to wear them this time.

Parking was on a field behind the cricket ground, with plenty of people directing the cars. There was a block of five or six portaloos and a couple of nicer toilets inside the cricket club. The queues weren’t too bad!

There was a short kids’ race (Kiddython) before the race, which my nephew took part in. He warned us there were cowpats on the course. My parents went along to look after my niece and nephew (and Hetty) while we were running. There were a couple of downpours before the main race started and everyone squeezed inside the clubhouse or the produce tent to shelter.

The race started on the far side of the cricket ground at 11am precisely. We ran out of the cricket ground onto a field which was wet, but not particularly muddy. And there were definitely cowpats! It wasn’t long before we were on the road. It was slightly downhill and the ground was very wet. My trail shoes had zero grip and it felt like I was running on ice. I started to regret my choices.

I passed a lady from our club, who is in the same age category as me. It wasn’t long before she overtook me. Then the gap between us got bigger and bigger. There was no way I was catching her.

We ran through Apperley village, which was very pretty. There was a water station at two miles. Water was in a paper cup, so I grabbed one and slurped a couple of mouthfuls as best as I could while running.

Then we were into a field with a very narrow path and no room for overtaking. It felt like we were on this path for quite a while. Then it was through a gate, through a patch of mud and into a field with a much wider path. The man behind me immediately overtook me and I overtook a couple of others. We ran along the bottom of the field, then back along the top of the field. I saw my husband run past on the top of the field as I was on the bottom of the field. Then I saw my sister and brother-in-law on the bottom of the field as I was on the top.

To be honest, as the route was completely unfamiliar to me, I don’t remember much about what happened where. It wasn’t entirely flat, but it wasn’t too hilly either. There was more downhill in the first half and more uphill in the second half. There were lots of fields and a few roads. There was some mud, but not much. The trail shoes were probably a good idea, but I think I would have been OK in normal trainers. There was another water station at five miles and I again attempted to slurp a few mouthfuls.

I wasn’t sure how long the race would take me. Obviously it was slightly longer than a 10k and also the off-road elements would probably slow me down a bit. I thought I would be happy with anything under an hour, but hoped for closer to 50 minutes.

We ran back into the village and through the churchyard, passing the 6 mile marker. But I still didn’t have much sense of where the finish line was. Then suddenly I spotted it over a hedge and I could see my husband crossing the line. I hoped my parents would be out to see us finish, as I’d told them I thought it would be just under an hour.

I entered the cricket field and ran around it, before sprinting for the line. I spotted Hetty first. She was there with my parents, niece and nephew.

 

I crossed the line in 51:33. I was 60th out of 444 runners and second in my age category. First, of course, was the lady from my club. That’s the only time this year that someone from the club has beaten me in the age category!

My husband finished less than two minutes before me. He was already shovelling cake into his mouth. There was a huge selection of homemade cakes for runners, as well as a bottle of water and a banana. The medals were all handmade and came in a variety of designs, including clay and woollen pom poms. The theme was cats and canaries – I have no idea why. My husband chose a clay cat medal. I chose a wooden one which looked like Tweetie Pie.

We all loved Apperley Quarter Marathon and will hopefully be back next year.