The Cambridge Half Marathon

The Cambridge Half Marathon is one of the UK’s biggest closed road half marathons. This year there were over 13,000 runners and it’s a very scenic route running past a few of the colleges and in the town.

After breakfast we walked from the hotel to our chosen viewing spot, at 5 miles into the route and then when the runners double back it’s also the 11 mile spot so you get to see the runners twice from the same location. It was also conveniently situated outside Hot Numbers so we could pop in to get coffees. Actually so many people had the same idea so the queue for coffees was outside the door!

 Meriel had a great run and smashed her time achieving a personal best of 1 hour 27 minutes for the 13 mile race (21 km) - she came 85th out of the 5,371 female runners. Adam was taking it easy as he did not want to over exert himself ahead of the Rome marathon in two weeks time, and he and his friend Arthur ran together. Adam finished at 1 hour 47 minutes which was excellent for an easy run. Inca ran with her dad, and they finished at 1 hour 43 minutes - it was Inca's first half marathon so she did extremely well, and her dad very sweetly ran all the way with her and made sure they went over the finishing line together. Unfortunately her good friend who was also running today collapsed and was taken to hospital. Tommy and Inca rushed to the hospital after the race and spent the afternoon there with her. They don't know what caused it so she has to go back to hospital for further tests tomorrow. I managed to get photos of Adam and Meriel at both the 5 mile point and again at 11 miles, but somehow missed Inca both times! The runners are often bunched together and although you are constantly scanning the runners coming past you can still miss them if they are behind someone else. We also saw Inca’s mum and sister who stood near us to watch.

After the race we went back to the hotel to pack up and check out before driving to lunch at a wonderful restaurant in Trumpington. Due to the closed roads the supposed 8 minute journey took 30 minutes. The lunch was great and good to spend time with Luke, Meriel, Adam and Anna - a photo of them in extras.

We are now home, unpacked and getting ready for the week ahead.