The Winchester Half is personally significant for me; it was the first half marathon I registered and trained for and in some ways got me started as a long-distance runner. This was my third time; in 2023 I was pleased to be just sub 2 hours, last year I was excited to beat 1:45 – my time was 1:40:48 and I commented on Reddit that I might have been able to catch the 1:40 pacers but only with “a titanic effort.”

Fast forward 12 months and I think I am a bit faster; this time I want to be sub-1:40.

The course is beautiful and starts and finishes in the historic city of Winchester, adorned with a cathedral that is in parts over 900 years old. It is also hilly; the first 3K or so is all uphill, following which it is undulating but includes another steep climb in the village of Oliver’s Battery, the segment for which on Strava is named “Drained battery.”

I arrived at the race village around 1 hour before the 9:00am start time; there were people around but it was strangely quiet. There had been a tragedy on the motorway, which was therefore closed, and the race was delayed by at least 30 minutes, in part because of delayed runners but also because key traffic marshals were stuck in the traffic and without their presence the race could not go ahead. There were even whispers that the race might be cancelled; road closures are difficult to manage at the best of times, everything has to be pre-approved by the authorities and if the race missed its time window it might have to be abandoned.

The weather was perfect, everything was set up, and runners milled around feeling a bit glum. It is odd to prepare oneself for a race, have an early breakfast and warm-up run, and then … nothing. I began to feel hungry; the plan was to do the race and have a second breakfast afterwards, but I did not want to eat again before running.

After 45 minutes or so there was some good news. The race would go ahead, the start time would be sometime after 10:00am. I had a chat with the two 1:40 pacers; they said they would try to keep an even pace despite the hills. I would therefore fall behind initially but hoped to catch up and overtake them later.

Nutrition? I tend to take a half marathon in my stride as far as possible. Early breakfast. One gel before the start and then nothing, I did not stop at the water stations.

The race

At 10:15 the race began. I started just behind the 1:40 pacers and as predicted, they disappeared ahead as I laboured up the first hills. The 1:45 pacers passed me as well. Nevertheless I felt pretty good; one redeeming feature of this course is that the starting climb is the worst and there are some nice steady downhills to come. We reached the junction with Kilham Lane on the left and the famous Clarendon Way on the right, the road levels out, and I began to speed up. You need to average 7:38/mile pace for sub-1:40; mile 3 I did in 7:16, mile 4 in 7:00 and mile 5 in 6:40 (yes it is downhill!).

I thanked the 1:40 pacers as I passed them and they told me that all I needed to do was to stay in front. Well I knew that; but “drained battery” was still to come.

You reach a charming village called Hursley with is the far point of the race. Next comes a relatively gentle climb up a narrow country lane, back to Oliver’s Battery which is on the outskirts of Winchester. Grind up the last major hill, and then the last 4.5 miles are easy. My time on the dreaded segment was 5:22, beating last year’s 5:39, and I was pretty sure then that I would achieve sub-1:40.

The last 4 miles have a few twists. There is an underpass where you actually have to go down steps; I tend to be cautious here for fear of falling over! Then there is a steepish descent, too steep for an ideal pace, followed by a flattish three miles or so to the finish. I tried to keep up the pace, foolishly hoping that I might win my age category. Back into the city centre, under the historic Kingsgate arch, around a few corners, then the sprint to the finish, rudely overtaken in the last stretch by a runner perhaps half my age!

Post-race

1:37:17 and an improvement of over 3 minutes from last year, but also a bit of an anti-climax. I realised that the not-very-generous race organisers had 10 year age categories so I had no chance of winning (I was 4th out of 24), and also discovered that I had apparently failed to order a t-shirt.

On the plus side, Starbucks were offering a free coffee to all finishers and I wandered along to collect my tall Americano which turned out to be more tasty than expected, possibly improved by post-race thirst. It was now lunchtime and too late for a second breakfast so I wandered home instead, thanking the excellent marshals en route; a tough day for them since they had been out longer than expected and remained super cheerful and encouraging.

Postscript: there are two Strava segments for the Oliver’s Battery stretch, one is longer and is called Low battery and the other just covers from the start of the steep hill to the underpass and is called Drained battery. I like Drained battery better but it may be hidden by default in a Strava post, just one of those Strava mysteries.