Cricklade Half Marathon aka A Stroll Down Memory Lane

Race Report by Dave Webb

50,000 people may have tackled the Great North Run on Sunday, but the real action was in Cricklade, where 230 runners sped round the eponymous half-marathon. Cricklade is, of course, famous for being my birthplace. I was born in my parents’ farmhouse, with the district nurse anxiously looking out of the window to see where the doctor was. He never arrived, but luckily I did.

The half-marathon course finished at the bottom of our lane, at the new sports centre (built in 1977). Unfortunately it started half a mile away at the village primary school, which meant a jog down in the pouring rain, and no shelter whilst we waited. I decided to wear my cagoule until the call for the start, lobbing it over the fence into the adjoining cemetery for safe keeping. The weather was varied, that is, at times there was light rain, and at times there was heavy rain. Luckily I had remembered the Vaseline and was able to keep the chafing to a minimum. My aims for the day were to enjoy the run down Memory Lane, and to finish in under 1 hour 30. The Memory Lane part of the plan was easy enough. The course covered familiar roads and lanes, including a section that passed the edge of what used to be our farm, but which is now the Cotswold Water Park. It took a stretch of the imagination to visualise our walks and picnics on fields that have been replaced by lakes; and to think of my grandfather farming the land 70 years ago.

Pacing a run has never been my strong point, and my recent marathon experiences have dented my confidence in my ability to keep going strongly throughout. I wasn’t helped on Sunday in the first few miles by a woman from Headington Runners; I overtook her, then heard some laboured breathing as she worked hard to sprint past me. Again I overtook her, and again she went past me, panting heavily. Eventually I pulled ahead, and the sound of her gasping subsided. I settled into a fairly even pace, and some recent training paid off as I was able to keep going fairly well, passing some runners towards the end and beating the 1.30 mark. All that remained was to return to the cemetery to retrieve my cagoule, which I found under a tree. I then thought that it would be nice to visit the grave of my great-uncle, a sporting fellow who was renowned for his bad language, poor hygiene, and limited social skills. He sounds like the prototype for a Maiden Newton Runner in fact. Sadly I couldn’t find his grave, despite ringing my parents for directions, so I left with some unfinished family business but a sense of satisfaction from a good race on a flat course. I checked the online results later, and discovered that David Webb from “Maidenhead” had finished in 1.29.