Race Date Sunday 9 June 2019. Report by Gillian Allen.

I found myself entered into Derby Half after double booking myself for Sheffield. As some of you will know, Run for All aren’t very flexible regarding transfers or defferals therefore my best option was to pay a handling fee and transfer my place to another of their half marathon events. In hindsight I’m really glad I double booked as I had a great time!

After looking into my travel options I decided to get the 8:18 train from Sheffield to Derby. This got me to Derby 25 minutes before the race was due to start. I had a 10 minute walk to the start and even found myself with time to use the bag drop. The route takes you from the city centre straight out to Elvaston Castle County park which marks half way and then your back along the River Derwent, past Pride Park and back into the centre for the finish. The first 5-6 miles flew by many thanks to the direct and simple route. There were a few turns around the country park however this was a great half way mark and we past through clusters of supporters. I ran alot of the route close to a Little Eton club runner who had some very vocal supporters and made me grin everytime I heard a shout out, it seemed that volume was the key to their support. Once out of the country park the next 3+ miles were by the side of the River Derwent before leaving the lovely cycle track to head back onto tarmac to pass Pride Park and commence the final 2 miles to the finish.

This was only the second year of Run for All organising the event and the first year with a city centre start and finish. The overall turnout and support was relatively small especially in comparison to Sheffield however I’m sure that the event will only get more and more popular. I would definitely recommend this event and definitely worth catching the train as timings were perfect.

William Strangeway of Lincoln Wellington Athletic Club was first male in a time of 1:08:38. First lady was Lucy Niemz of Notts AC in a time of 1:20:29. Seven Striders took part, Alex Mee leading the way in a time of 1:30:56.