RAF Spadeadam Half Marathon

Yes, JD does do races that don't go up and down mountains, though my first half marathon in about 10 years wasn’t actually as bad as I had expected and at least wasn't on the road. It was different to any other that I had ran, in that it was entirely within the RAF military base at Spadeadam in Northumberland. It was an undulating run round forest trails, enlivened by the surprise appearance round every corner of tanks, rocket launchers and mock Russian lorries. I took it steady over the first half, managing to keep to 7 and a half minute miling OK, telling myself all along that I had still to run the Langdale Fell Race 3 days later. At half way, which was also the highest point of the race, I tried to push it a little and managed to reel in a dozen or so ahead of me on the mainly downhill 2nd half. My adducter was hurting a bit over the last mile downhill on the road, but I held on to finish in 1h 37m. A good day out in an interesting part of the country and the only one where I had to show photo ID before I could run the race!