The Maidstone Half Marathon was held on Sunday 16th October, 2011. Here's a film and review of the event.
First of all, here is the film...
It was a beautiful morning as I left my house for the race. Really cold but clear, and with a light mist.
The race HQ was at my old school, used to be called Vinters Boys, I haven't been back there since the day I walked/ran out aged 16. Race registration was in the old school hall, how small it looks now that the teachers aren't up there on stage frowning down at me! I got my number and timing chip and walked down past the stalls - there was a burger bar and 2 gear stalls - past the school farm (used to be just a pig sty but now they've got cows and large sheds) and through the woods where I got many a kicking from the older lads. Then it was across the playing fields and onto Grove Green estate, where the start line was.
The first mile and a half was around the estate, then we were out onto the main A20 road towards Bearsted. I didn't particularly enjoy that A20 bit of the race, the pathways were often only wide enough for 2 people at a time (and there were over 600 taking part in the race) and since we'd only been going a couple of miles the field was still quite bunched so it made for some tricky running at first. Nothing too bad, it was just that to overtake you often had to move onto the grass verge, which was pretty uneven, or the road, which was quite busy.
There were some nice, vocal crowds around Grove Green at first but these dropped off during the A20 bit of the race, before re-appearing outside the various pubs en route on the Pilgrims Way and when we came down from the North Downs to Bearsted Green at mile 11 or 12. The weather was stunning, a little cold as you can see from the guy's clouds of breath in the photo below, but bright sun; perfect weather for running really.
There were lots of cheery marshals, and 3 water points along the way.
After we'd turned off the main road the scenery became really nice and very Kentish - rolling hills and farmland - as we started to climb up through the pretty village of Hollingbourne to the Pilgrims Way, which runs just below the top ridge of the North Downs.
The route here was well marked and marshalled, and was always firm underfoot. It had been described to me as undulating, and I'd say that was a fair description. The hills were testing but not real monsters and I reckon that whilst you're probably not going to break your PB on this course you won't finish in too slow a time either.
There was a long downhill stretch and then we were back into Bearsted, where the route was lined nicely with support. Then it was a short uphill before the final downhill through Grove Green estate to the finish line.
Every finisher received a medal, t-shirt and Sainsbury goodie bag (and nice big smiles from the ladies handing out the stuff). Most racers seemed to hang around for a good while after they'd finished to cheer the backmarkers in, which was a nice thing to do, especially as it was pretty cold under the shady trees after you'd been running and sweating for a while.
So, in summary, the Maidstone Half Marathon was a very friendly, well attended and well organised affair. The first third of the race, mostly along the main A20, wasn't the greatest bit of road I've run along, but the rest more than made up for it scenery wise. Well worth entering this next year, I just hope you have the superb weather that we did!
