Stroud half marathon 2024

On 27th October, my husband, eldest and I ran Stroud half marathon. It was my sixth time running it, my husband’s fourth and my eldest’s second. Stroud is one of my favourite races and I’ve recorded a lot of my best times there. I was disappointed with my results at Worcester and Cardiff, so was putting myself under a bit of pressure to do well.

Stroud half marathon is part of our running club race series. I also wanted to be sure I would beat the lady in my age category from the club who beat me at Apperley Quarter Marathon. I’ve got a clean sweep in my age category in the race series and didn’t want to fall at the final hurdle!

As a result of being so determined, I didn’t sleep well the night before. I’d intended to get up at 5:30, but woke up at 3:45 (new time, as the clocks had just changed) and got up at 5:10.

I wore my fast Nike Vaporfly trainers because I was so determined to do well. I’m pretty heavy on shoes and they’re really expensive, so I don’t wear tham often. This year I’ve only worn them for Newport marathon, Cheltenham half marathon and two parkruns at Severn Bridge.

There were a few small changes at Stroud half marathon this year. We picked up numbers on the day, rather than receiving them in the post, and the bag drop was in a tent, rather than the sports hall. Best of all – bone conducting headphones were allowed! Even though UK Athletics rules say only bone conducting headphones are allowed on roads which aren’t closed, Stroud half marathon has always just banned all headphones. We only found this out on Tuesday, so I had to compile myself another playlist and try not to duplicate too many songs from my Cardiff playlist. My eldest managed to order himself some headphones in time.

The weather was beautiful – cold and sunny. The queue to pick up the numbers was long, but moved quickly. And there were far more toilets than usual. It was going to be a good day.

The runners assembled in good time and the race started at bang on 9am. I lined up with my husband and a few of the club members just behind the 1:45 pacer. And I never saw the pacer again!

I’d worked out that to get a PB I needed to run 8 minute/ mile pace, which sounded pretty quick. I set off at a comfortable pace and realised I was actually running 7:15 minute/ mile pace. I slowed down a bit and my pace stayed at 7:40 minute/ mile – way quicker than I’ve ever run a half marathon before. I wondered whether I should slow down, but decided I would slow down naturally, as and when I needed to.

The course ran out of Stroud and into Stonehouse. I saw my friend Joy aka Pink Oddy who was a marshal in Stonehouse at about 2.5 miles. It’s always good to see a friendly face when you’re running. There was a bit of an uphill at about three miles, but I was pleased to get through 5k in less than 24 minutes – which is about what I run my home parkrun in.

We always say Stroud half marathon isn’t hilly, it’s undulating. The area around Stroud is definitely hilly, but the course isn’t as hilly as it might be. There’s no real steep climbs and generally it seems to have more uphills in the first half and more downhills in the second half.

The course then headed out of Stonehouse and into Standish, which is a much more rural area. There was a water station (one of only two) at 4.5 miles. Water was in a plastic cup, so I just had a couple of slurps, then splashed the rest on my face and chest. At about this point, my legs felt quite stiff and I wondered again if I’d gone off too quickly.

Before long we had crossed a bridge over the M5 and were heading up the A38. This is the bit of the Stroud half marathon I always remember most clearly. It’s about 0.7 of a mile, it’s up hill all the way and we’re separated from speeding traffic by just a few cones. My time dipped a bit at this point, which wasn’t surprising. But I hit 10k in under 48 minutes – not too much slower than my actual 10k PB. After the A38, there’s a welcome downhill and we’re back into the countryside.

Then it was back over the M5 and into a massive housing new housing estate. It feels like this estate goes on forever. There was a bit of an uphill as we entered the estate and my legs weren’t happy with me. But I was still pleased with my time and confident of getting a PB.

Then I had a couple of miles where I felt really good and overtook a lot of people. The sun was shining and it was getting quite warm. There were spectators cheering – including a work contact I’d met for the first time that morning, which was nice. There was more water at 9.5 miles and the world felt like a happy place.

Then the route moved seamlessly from the housing estate into an industrial estate – by which time we were at around 10 miles. We left the industrial estate and started the long return journey. Part of this is running along the busy A419, which can be a bit scary. Then we join up with the same route we followed on the way out for the big push to the end.

There are lots of spectators along the final couple of miles of the route and they’re really supportive and enthusiastic, which is great. I’ve got my name on my vest, so a lot of people were calling my name, which was much appreciated. There’s some downhill on this final stretch, but also some uphill, including the very last few metres. I knew at this point that even if I slowed down to 8 minute/ miles or slower for the last couple of miles that I was on for a really good PB.

I kept pushing and crossed the line in an incredible 1:43:28 – more than three minutes faster than the PB I set at Cheltenham in September this year! I was only a minute and a half behind my husband, who was very surprised to see me. I had actually been able to see him in front of me for a lot of the race. He’d got a one second PB! Our son finished just behind me in 1:45:24, which was a big PB for him too. In the past, his half marathons have been affected by injury and lack of training (not to mention running too fast and collapsing on the line at Cheltenham in 2021), but he’d put some proper consistent work in for this one and it paid off. He’ll be running faster than us before we know it.

At the end we were given a very nice metal medal. Stroud was the first half marathon I’ve experienced giving out wooden medals, but I think they’ve realised that a lot of people prefer a metal medal. This year’s changes, especially being able to wear headphones and increased number of toilets were really welcome. I really hope organiser Race Nation sticks with them for next year.

I’ll be back next year, but beating that time will be tough!