Worcester half marathon 2024

On Sunday, my husband, eldest and I all ran the Worcester half marathon – or Worcester City Runs half marathon to give it its full name. We ran it last year and enjoyed it, so decided to run it again.

I’d had a hamstring niggle since Cheltenham half marathon two weeks earlier and was hoping it would be OK. I’d felt it on my speed endurance session and parkrun in the days after the half. When I’d attempted to do a 13 mile training run for Worcester, I ended up cutting it short to 10. Then it hurt again on my three mile tapering run, four days before Worcester. So I’d been rolling it and icing it for the last few days.

Worcester half marathon started at the random time of 9:35, because there were kids’ races and a 10k setting off beforehand. Starting the 10k first was a good idea, because it meant the two races didn’t get in each others’ way! A lot of the car parks and roads were closed from 8am, so we set off from home at 7:30, with the aim of arriving at 8. We actually found a small car park just outside the city centre and parked there. It was a mile or more to get to the start, but it made leaving the city very easy.

The start is under a viaduct in the city centre, close to the university and The Hive library. The bag drop was a few minutes’ walk away, at the racecourse. There were no numbers to attach to your bag, you just dropped it off and then picked it back up again.

There were blocks of portaloos between the viaduct and the racecourse and also in the car park close to The Hive. The queues were big. We thought they would get better once the 10k had set off, but I suppose all the half marathon runners thought the same, so they were horrendous!

The weather forecast was 13 degrees at the start, rising to 17 degrees, with sunny intervals. As we waited at the start line, the sun was beating down. Not good! Luckily, it clouded over soon after the race started.

After my bone conducting headphones failed me at Cheltenham half marathon, my priority for Worcester (other than finishing and avoiding injury) was to be able to listen to music. I listened to the playlist I’d set up for Cheltenham – starting with Lorde’s Green Light, then it was all killer and no filler all the way to the finish line. Lots of Yungblud, lots of Levellers, lots of Kenickie. With the exception of Stick Season – a song I’m obsessed with – it was pretty much punk all the way. Possibly it was too much punk and I should probably start a bit more gently with some Travis, Coldplay and Ed Sheeran before going in hard.

Excitingly, Paula Radcliffe was there to start the race. I ran right past her, but she wasn’t up for high fives.

Worcester half marathon has four distinct phases – a residential area/ the university, then the racecourse, then the city centre and finally the river. It is pretty much a series of small loops and out and backs. It is a really nice course with plenty of support and lots of people shouting my name.

The race started and my husband quickly pulled away from me. I found myself running with the 1:45 pacer, which was probably a bit fast for me. It’s possible I might get to 1:45 one day, but not two weeks after my previous half marathon and not when I’m wearing ordinary running shoes. (I have Nike Vaporflys, but as they are so expensive and I’m so hard on shoes, I don’t wear them for every race.)

My pace soon dropped to a more manageable level and the pacer disappeared. The course did a little loop through the University of Worcester’s campus and some residential streets, before heading back towards the start line. This was about four miles and there were very unhelpful 200m to go and 13 mile signs. At this point, the 10k runners were heading towards the finish line, in a separate lane to the half marathon runners.

At about 4.5 miles, we entered the racecourse and ran a loop of it. By the time we left the racecourse we were pretty much halfway. The racecourse gave me flashbacks of the parkrun there (Worcester Pitchcroft), which I’d run in June on an extremely cold and wet day.

In my head, Worcester half marathon was flat, but in reality it wasn’t. There were no big hills, but there were quite a few little inclines. Worcester is a riverside city, so it would make sense that you would need to climb every time you move away from the river. The climb from the racecourse was particularly exhausting.

There was then a lot of twisting and turning around the city, including a loop of The Hive on a sort of bridge. At this point, we saw faster runners going in the opposite direction – including two people I know who were both on course for well below 1:40.

Anyone who knows me well will know that I love a sculpture trail! I was very pleased to see a penguin sculpture trail in Worcester. We passed countless penguins on the route, which all brought a smile to my face.

There were water stations at 2.5, 5, 7.5, 9.5 and 11 miles. Even though I carry my own Lucozade, I decided to have a bit of water every time as the weather was quite hot. The water came in little cartons, which are easier to drink out of than paper cups, but harder than plastic bottles. I managed to slurp a few mouthfuls while running, then put some on my face, chest and arms each time.

At 9.5 miles, we started running along the river. We ran along it for about half a mile, then weaved around a couple of basins with flats next to them. This looked exactly like the Gloucester 10k course! Just before 12 miles, we crossed a bridge to the other side of the river. This felt like being properly in the countryside. My legs were tired and I could see that I was way off PB pace. I wasn’t sure I would even scrape in below 1:50. It’s amazing how you can lose so much time in two weeks and I don’t really know why. Although looking at my Garmin heart rate data later, my heart rate was higher than it had been at Cheltenham and I’d spent nearly the whole run (1 hour 37) in Zone 5. But I’m pleased to say my hamstring was absolutely fine.

I high fived a couple of people in inflatable dinosaur costumes and kept on running. One Way came on. I knew that was the penultimate song on my playlist. Just before 13 miles, we emerged from the trees and crossed another bridge. There were loads of people cheering. And there were those two signs I’d seen over an hour ago – 200m to go and 13 miles.

A final push… I could see my husband at the side and I was over the finish line. We Are the Champions was playing – the final song on my playlist, which I’d planned for the finish line. Although I’d hoped I would actually be finished before it came on! My playlist was a ‘just in case’ 1 hour 52 long.

I finished in 1:49:54. I was 6th in my age category out of 67, 71st woman out of 581 and 458th overall out of 1472, so it wasn’t bad! My husband was just 30 seconds off his PB, in a time starting 1:43. My eldest finished in a time starting 1:54. It was his second fastest half marathon. Although on his fastest half marathon, he’d collapsed on the line, had a seizure and ended up spending a night in hospital. So I would say this was actually his PB! (I’ve always worried about him running since then and I’m always reminding him about the importance of proper fuelling and hydration. It wasn’t until we were walking back to the car that he admitted he hadn’t had any breakfast. He doesn’t use electrolytes, so he’d run the whole thing on just water.)

We all enjoyed Worcester half marathon and I’m sure we will be back in the future.