Graham’s Blog – The Great Yarmouth Half-Marathon (12.08.2018)

This time I went as far east in this country as you can go to take part in the Great Yarmouth Half Marathon, starting in Gorleston On Sea and then meandering along some stunning undulating country lanes before returning to the start/finish area at the Ormiston Venture Academy. This venue was brilliantly well-marshalled and organised by the army of volunteers. They even provided indoor toilets – a real treat for us runners that are used to the usual portaloos, but just in case there were a few of those on hand too!

As this year has progressed the weather has been the one constant challenge with temperatures ranging from -6C to +30C; cancelled races due to snow and in this most recent race high humidity, conditions have been anything but conducive to distance running. According to my trusty running app I lost around 96 fluid ounces along the route and boy did I feel it in the last few miles! Each run has brought its own challenge and this one was definitely the humidity for me, never at my best in those conditions. Still managed a very respectable 01:49:13 although I did drop over 2 mins in the last few miles.

THE ONE WITH THE SMALL FIELD AND HIGH QUALITY

On a day when around 380 people finished the course I did find myself running alone at times but never for long, and to help everyone seemed to have words of encouragement for each other. I loved the course of narrow country lanes and very little traffic. Volunteers and marshals you should be very proud of yourselves, your efforts to keep us safe, watered and encouraged were outstanding. You might not be the Great North Run but I must say the Great Yarmouth was all about the quality of the experience rather than the size of the field. A special thank you to the Great Yarmouth Road Runners for organising such a high quality event.

As someone who started out as a charity campaigner and fun runner I tried not to feel daunted by the hordes of seasoned club runners with all their different team colours and logos. My mind did start to look ahead to the Robin Hood where I will be joined by 25 other runners in Double Impact colours who are taking on the full 13.1 miles in support of our charity and to help me get round my 20th in a year! There is still time to join up to run for us – see below.

Best Moment – As I was running through the grounds of Somerleyton Hall I overheard two people from Reepham Runners saying “he’s a good pace runner for us”. On turning around I could not believe it was me they were talking about! Anyway I did point out that I was starting to fade as they ran up the final gruelling climb. Thanks for your support and for making me feel like a proper runner.

Funniest Moment – Watching a car who had driven past the field with the windows down not realising that someone was cooling off the competitors with a garden hose.

STILL MORE RUNNERS PLEASE!

We still have Charity places for people wanting to run the Robin Hood Half Marathon & Mile Challenges on the 29th & 30th of September. Would you like to join us and raise funds to support our work? Contact us or to find out more visit the charity partners’ info page on the marathon website. For those looking for a shorter distance to run there is the new ‘One Mile Challenge’ this year where you can also raise money for the Charity. More details on both events can be found here.

Thanks to our service users, The Treat Kitchen, Buckles Solicitors and other supporters who are already signed up to run alongside staff from Café Sobar and Double Impact.

If you would like to make a donation to the campaign please click here.

NEXT RUN

So – it’s 16 down and 4 to go. With the hot weather and planned family holidays I will probably end up running my last 4 races in September which already include the Great North Run and the Robin Hood Half. Just looking around for some more options on the other free weekends! Would you like to decide where I run next – then please get in touch. I will put a call out on Twitter for suggestions and I’ll post some more updates for you @DI_Recovery & @DI_Runs.

Thanks for reading.