The 21st Asics Lake Vyrnwy Half Marathon (Powys)

The 21^st Asics Lake Vyrnwy Half MARATHON

(Powys) – 13/09/09 1pm

Course Record Male 62:14 Female 72:05

Directions: Approx 126 miles – about 2 hrs 36 mins - (18 miles from Oswestry)

Scenery: 10. The dam was built in the 1880’s is the first of its kind in the world. The Nature Reserve and the area around it are jointly managed by the RSPB and Severn Trent Water. It was built for the purpose of supplying Merseyside with fresh water. (2 churches and 3 pubs were lost under the reservoir!). The Peregrine Falcon is known to breed in the area

Do it Again: Yes……Finlay looking at staying in a nearby Travel Lodge next year, but we’ll need to enter early.

Value: 0 (£15 to enter & received a huge goody bag…………containing a pen and an energy bar!! I felt like giving it back!)

Organisation: 10 Faultless – even had portable showers (though the ‘privacy’ glass was a bit misleading; you couldn’t see out, but people outside could see in!) The race is full every year. No race last year as the organiser had died. You need to enter February/March. Prize giving at 4:15, but they let Steve Littler collect his after the race because of the distance we had to travel back.

PB potential: 10 Last time I ran this race in 2001 Amanda Allen ran the fastest time in the UK (1:12:43) and Barry Peatfield ran 1:14 (those were the days, eh Barry!)

Atmosphere: 10 Seemed nearly as many spectators as runners!.........but only from the dam back to the finish. A shuttle bus took spectators to the dam.

Beginner Friendly: 10. Last runner: 3:18:51

Met Finlay at 8:30 am at The Fairfield and travelled down at a leisurely pace with 2 pit stops. This was my 2^nd Lake Vyrnwy, but the first time for Michaela and Finlay. Saw Sarah Sherratt there and this was her fourth time.

I rarely visit Wales nowadays – just really the Welsh Castles Relay (usually mid June), but always marvel and its beauty.

Lake Vyrnwy seems the middle of nowhere and I couldn’t help but wonder why there was a Hotel here – perhaps people enjoy the seclusion (and the beauty). (It’s a 4 star Hotel that charges £175 for a single room!!)

http://www.lakevyrnwy.com/home.html

Also seemed a shortage of Pubs in the area.

Perhaps 1700 (1800 Limit) in the race and a chap recognised me on the Start line, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember where I knew him from (after wading through the results, I found it was Keith Robins) (we used to work for The Royal Bank). I told him I was after 1:26 and he said he was after 1:30

I stood near Finlay, Tanya, Dempsey and Sarah at the Start. I was behind Sarah for maybe a mile and passed her near the dam. I started overtaking a few runners; the only ‘local’ runner I recognised was a Wigan runner (Chris Nightingale)

I thought I was going fairly well, but noticed a few vests I’d overtaken were overtaking me, but I didn’t feel like I was slowing down. Not done much training over 10k, so today was a bit of a tester after our exotic holiday (Alex Rowe in Saturday’s Gazette!). I couldn’t see my watch without my glasses, but heard mile splits from runners nearby and a few of the mile markers seemed out. They had small markers on nearby trees, but the marker on the road always seemed some distance away from the tree. The trees were a blessing as it was a lovely sunny day; quite a few people were having picnics and the majority of the course was in the shade. Quite a few macho runners ran bare chested.

Each time a group of runners went past, I tried to stay with them until the 9 mile marker and was told the time. I think it was 61 minutes and I thought I was running faster than that and it put me back a bit and my mind started wandering………..then I could see the Hotel up above and the dam and realised I had to dig in and grit my teeth (not far to go) – I don’t think anybody else came past after this point. From the dam to the finish was maybe a mile or less and the spectators lined the route behind railings spurring us on and a guy near the finish shouted names out Andy O’Sullivan’s (but nowhere near as good as Andy!)

1^st Male (£300): Ben Fish (Blackburn) 1:06:55 1st Female (£300): Claire Martin (Telford) 1:18:53

2^ndMale (£200) Steve Littler 1:10:15 2nd Female (£200): Amy Green (Keighley) 1:24:17

3^rd Male (£100) Paul Ward (Wrekin) 1:10:23 3^rd Female (£100): Alison Lavender (Oswestry) 1:25:07

29^th Lee Barlow 1:19:24

110^th Martin Bates 1:29:20

196^th (21^st female) Michaela Dempsey 1:35:01

201^st (22^nd) Sarah Sherratt 1:35:14 PB

296^th Keith Robins 1:40:07 (my old RBS colleague)

434^th Finlay McCalman 1:47:10.