TWH Spring Marathons – Stratford Upon-Avon Marathon Report from a Novice First Timer 🙂
Stratford Upon-Avon Shakespeare Marathon – No sign of Shakespeare!
This new activity of writing a running report is being written with frozen peas on my purple toes so I hope I am able to capture some of what’s in my brain from Sunday’s experience (27/04/2025) for you.
I booked a secret April marathon as I felt this would be the best time of year to attempt my first marathon. I thought in England we can be hopeful for dry weather but realistically maybe grey skies and maybe a little rain in April. But I was shocked to wake up to 20-degree temperatures in the direct sunshine. My OCD brain had over packed a bag of thermal underlayers, gloves, leggings and a head band that I very much now did not need to be carrying!
I was very eager and was on the start line nice and early. I was enjoying the hustle and bustle of people arriving and having time to set up my technology (not my strongest area). Then soon realised that I couldn’t see a bag area. I soon realised the bag drop was at the finish line not in the town! I then needed to scoot across a 10 -15-minute walk to the finish line and then speed walk back to the start line again. Don’t do this!
When I was on the start line (for the second time), I secretly wished I had told people as I stood there physically shaking with nerves. I then resulted to asking the person next to me how they were feeling and discovered they felt the same. I tried to lock into all the advice I had heard about tips from fellow harrier runners from their experiences. I knew I needed to go slow and steady and was very wary of needing hydration and fuel.
And then we were off, being cheered off by a lot of spectators in the town by a beautiful canal. The first section was running along main high streets and smaller parks. And area not possible for an urgent wee!
Around mile 5 I settled into running with another female runner who was running her first marathon in her hometown. And I happily settled into a running pace with her discussing what brought us to entering a marathon. This first section of the race saw us run past some beautiful large country homes and into a new cobbled street town. There were lots of views of sheep and rural churches. Then further canals, rural fields, country paths, a racecourse and then back to town. This happily saw me through to the halfway point of 13 miles – easily marked to run the route again for the marathon runners.
Around mile 19 the heat was now at it’s peak and I was feeling a little nauseous. I realised my heart was now beating at 185 beats a minute so tried to pull back a little. The next three miles were the hardest for me fighting the gradient and heat with no water left on me. I stopped and put my headphones in for the first time and locked in. Also thankfully, some family homes had turned on their garden sprinklers which helped!
On the notes for the marathon, it had mentioned ‘it’s good for a PB’ and it’s flat – but I didn’t read the small print of that this can be in intervals! Overall, the race was fairly flat, but I did struggle with the downhill on my shins at around mile 10&20.
The last 500 metres were joyous! You run back past a country path by the canal and a small Ferris wheel. The paths are filled with families and cheering. I happened to cross the last 100 metres with no runner around me and everyone was cheering my name. And presented with a shiny heavy medal (better than my expectation). A definite highlight!
Overall, this town was very pretty and such a lovely scenic route – I will be returning to Warwick just to be tourist for the day (and maybe a sneaky park run)!
Kerry Histed
