16 March 2025

Paddock Wood Half Marathon

Some fantastic performances from the club at the Paddock Wood Half Marathon on Sunday 9th March.

A special mention to Ruby Jones who smashed the ladies club record!!

Thanks to Ruby, Jack and Steve for the below reports:

From Jack Bradley:

7 weeks out from the London Marathon, this race provides a great opportunity for a dress rehearsal. Renowned for being fast and flat, over 2000 runners assembled on an unseasonably warm March day. Having been accustomed to training in sub 5degC conditions for the majority of the winter, this was a shock for many!

My race plan was simple: tuck into a group near the front and see how far and fast my legs could carry me. Through halfway, I was flying – but unfortunately this wasn’t to prove sustainable on the day! In the weeks preceding, I had been taking my training volume and intensity into new territory, with the main focus being the marathon. The lack of meaningful taper started to show at around 9 miles, and the last 4 miles were a big struggle! I was questioning my life choices at this point!

When you’re trying to find your limit, inevitably you will sometimes go beyond it. While I did not end up with the sort of time that I was seeking on the day, I learned a huge amount that I will take into my training, the marathon and races beyond.

Massive congratulations to fellow TRAC runners on the day. In particular, Ruby Jones, who was clearly non phased by the warm weather – and delivered an amazing performance to set a new ladies record for the club!

From Steve Suttle:

I had a lot of competition in my category so although I was a little disappointed with my time my 5th place in the British championship is not to be sniffed at! I hope to do better in the 50k championship on May 3rd. Dave has fallen off a cliff time wise this year proving that he is actually human and is shell-shocked I think. He is not sure whether to run London. Despite this he still won the silver medal so that can’t be too bad! Conditions were warm on the day which no-one was really acclimatised for. Ruby Jones ran a terrific 1.23 and would have won the gold medal in the v35 category if she had registered!

From Ruby Jones:

I raced the Paddock Wood half as a London tester with an ambition to achieve 85 minutes. It was a lovely day for running, body felt good and conditions were ideal for a shot at it. I stuck with the 1:25 pacers who were very friendly and knowledgable about the course, albeit not much to report just a couple slopes but largely flat and again ideal! The pacers were encouraging and I felt good at the end so ended up exceeding my target and was absolutely thrilled. I’d recommend it as a race, it was more congested than I expected, the start line was very full and it was a bit hard finding space to run for the first mile ish, the toilets were also extremely busy so would have been nice to have some more available. The water stations were adequate and all in all well organised.