Clowne Half Marathon

24th November 2024 | Author Karen Read

Entering a half marathon at the end of November is always going to be a gamble with the weather. Luckily for Clowne the legendary finisher’s hoodie keeps the race entries flooding in with 680 runners braving the undulating course this year.

Storm Bert was a late entry and was set to test the resilience of any runner from the moment we woke on Sunday morning.  I hadn’t slept well the night before, hearing the lashing rain and howling wind outside throughout the night, followed by waking early for breakfast and pre-race preparations, whilst checking if the race was still going ahead.

I travelled with a few others DRC bees which helped with the camaraderie and motivational chat as we travelled the 35mins to Clowne; observing the roads were flooded, the rain was still lashing down and the wind still pretty strong. A certain amount of hysteria and trepidation filled us, as we seriously questioned was the hoodie really worth all of this.

Arriving at Clowne, we easily found the designated car park, a short walk to the start, remarking that it was surprisingly warm, with only a little rain and the lovely warm leisure centre greeted us with indoor and portaloo toilets and bag drop, all well organised.  We huddled inside enjoying the warmth, hoping that the rain would have stopped by 9am.  When we could delay it no longer, we filed out to brave Storm Bert. Due to the warmer temps, I had committed to minimal gear -  club vest and shorts, and on exiting the warm leisure centre, we were met with what can only be described as a typhoon. Violet winds, lashing freezing rain, I quickly tried to use anyone and everyone as a windbreak and huddle..it was hilarious and so so awful at the same time.

9am - after a thankfully quick round of announcements from the race organisers, we were off. The route itself is on a mix of open and closed roads, passing through countryside, local villages, pavements nr busy roads and back to Clowne itself.  Not the most inspiring route, but there are enjoyable sections meandering through quiet country roads, quaint houses and farms with sporadic and good support from marshals and locals along the course. New for this year, there were sections of flooding where ploughing through the middle of the road was the only option, ending up with soggy socks a handful of times. I was mainly running between groups, trying to hook onto the runner in front as running solo seemed much harder to maintain pace. For the majority of the race, mile 1-10 the weather behaved and at one point the sun shone and I was feeling touch too warm, little did I know what was up ahead.

Personally, the challenging part of the route is around 10 miles, and I had remembered this from last year. A series of inclines over a few km, followed by a double back and run into Clowne that even on a good day is exposed and windy, and a cheeky incline before the 400m sprint finish.

What is usually a challenge, became an ultra challenge on Sunday. Storm Bert deciding to turn up with gale force winds, head on into runners for the last 5k. At one point I questioned if I was still moving forwards.  Legs tired from driving up the hills, pace completely knocked off, head down to save the blasting wind on your face, and trying to keep a straight path as the wind shoved me about.  Hats off to all the Marshalls out there on the course as in those windy sections that must have been pretty grim.

Its sounds really appealing doesn’t it, but like anything it was a challenge, a race I won’t forget for a while, and for all those 680 runners (or fools) who took on Storm Bert vs Clowne the prized hoodie, in a non-controversial grey colour was hopefully worth it! I finished in 1:48:41s, about 3 mins slower than last year, I’m blaming Storm Bert.

A total of 20 DRC runners took part, including a hat trick of Alexanders. Sam Smith being the first back in 1:23:19s (2nd in age cat). This was the penultimate race in this year’s road race league, special mention to Simon Alexander running a time of 1:43:10s to continue his fantastic year and running every league race so far.