The Derby Half Marathon

Race Date: 19th June 2022

Report by Hannah Holiday

The Derby Half Marathon (or Ramathon, as it’s also known) has a reputation for being a ‘flat and fast’ course, and if I’m being totally honest that is the only reason I signed up. After a few good weeks of training I was keen to test myself over the distance and so when I noticed there were still spaces available a few days before I decided to put in a last-minute entry.

As it turns out, it is quite a nice race! Being one of the Run For All events I was concerned that it might feel too busy but that wasn’t the case at all – there were enough people to make it feel like a city race but no crowding at the start line and no big queues. The weather conditions were ideal (an unbelievably well-timed break in the heatwave either side of that weekend!) and once I’d collected my race number and warmed up I started to feel quite excited. I bumped into a fellow Sheffielder (and Strider-to-be!) called Bryan at the start line and we established that we were both aiming for a similar time, although at that point I didn’t realise just how useful that conversation would turn out to be.

The route starts in the city centre and heads out towards Elvaston Castle Country Park, back along the river Derwent to Alvaston Park and then past Pride Park into the city centre again. The majority of the route is on road/tarmac with some gravel paths in the parks and along the river. It is mostly flat (although after 12.5 miles the small incline back towards the finish felt like Everest!) and overall is a very pleasant route which passes through some lovely parks and green spaces.

Given that I had only come to Derby to try and get a decent time, my plan was to stick like glue to my chosen pacer, dig in and hope for the best. Not a fail-safe race strategy by any means, but at least it gave me someone to run with…or it would have done if I hadn’t got carried away within the first 10 seconds and gone off far too fast. Within a few minutes Bryan was alongside me and we ran the next 6 miles together while I wondered exactly how much trouble this poor display of pacing was going to get me into later in the race. “It’s miles 6-8 which are really tough” said Bryan, as he dropped back a bit. I should have dropped back with him and reconnected with the pacer…but I didn’t. The miles ticked on and I was just about hanging in there, but then mile 12 arrived. And so did Bryan. And so did the pacer. I was done – there was nothing left in my legs at all, and I felt like I was staring down the barrel of an entirely deserved DNF. But it turns out that sharing your goals with people before a race is actually a very powerful thing. The pacer was screaming at me to keep going, counting down the minutes behind me. Bryan was running alongside me, spurring me on and reminding me just how close we were to the end. Another guy who I’d been neck and neck with for a few miles was also there, insisting that we were all finishing this together. It’s safe to say that I was not my usual cheerful self by this point and was alternating between swearing loudly and threatening to give up running forever and take up swimming instead. And I HATE swimming!

After what felt like the longest mile I’ve ever run in my whole life (and I have run quite a few), the finish line finally appeared and I threw myself over it. Sub 1:40 goal achieved and new PB acquired. It wasn’t pretty and there were some valuable lessons learnt about pacing, but it was still mission accomplished, largely thanks to the amazing support and encouragement from people I hardly knew. And of course, once I’d wandered around Derby in a daze, had a milkshake and navigated my way out of the road closures, the pain was all forgotten. The swimming pools are safe (for now!)

The race was won by Ben Connor in a time of 1:03:00, with Lily Partridge first Female in a time of 1:15:56.

There were 5 Striders who made the trip to Derby.