Review: Hampton Court Half Marathon

It has been two weeks since I ran the Hampton Court Half Marathon, which is my second race in London. In just two weeks, things has gone worse. That is, two weeks ago today on the race day, the weather was absolutely perfect. But since then, we've had a week of snow, sleet, and ridiculous wind that has although not affected my running has made me dread cycling. In fact, I slipped twice so lesson learned - don't push too hard. That being said though, running on snow was quite nice.

But back to the Half Marathon. It was great that my nearest station had a direct access to the start. It was only 30 min train ride from Vauxhall to Thames Ditton, and although I had to wake up at 6 am, it was convenient. I had bread and some cereal to eat for the morning so I had enough energy, and so I hopped on the train and got to the start.

The start was quite small. Yes, it's a small race, but there were a lot of people there. I had to wait quite a while for the toilet. And then I handed my bag over. By then, the first wave of people have already started, hence my chip time was 6 minutes slower than my actual time. The start and the bag drop was in a little muddy park - there were a few coffee and pastry stands and some sponsors. But yeah, my clothes and bag got muddy before the race even begun!

The course was scenic and I think the perfect weather helped, too. It was definitely flat, as they advertised, but only the first section was closed. The rest was SO dangerous as we had to run on non-closed road on a small pavement. I had to run off the pavement for much of it in order to run at a faster pace. It was honestly ridiculous. And that definitely annoyed me the most.

Much of the route was by the river and we did pass the Hampton Court Palace on the outside. Being able to look at the Kingston Centre was cool, too. I definitely want to check it out in the summer when it gets warmer.

In the end, I ran it in 1:51. I'm pretty sure that if it weren't for the crowded, dangerous roads, I could have gotten a PB. But here's the route:

Side note: My Garmin Vivoactive HR heart rate reading was really off...

Apparently there is another Hampton Court Half Marathon - I think that one actually goes inside the Palace? Honestly, I wasn't too happy with this race's organizational aspects, so I don't think I'll do it next year. It's not that I'm angry or trying to be pessimistic, I'm just giving an honest review.

But as always, Alex was at the finish line, which made it all the better!

And here is a celebratory picture after the race, when we walked around on this really pretty day and took a picture by the Palace and the Thames!

Next up: Run Fest at Lee Valley (Half Marathon) on March 25th!

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