The half marathon scored well on its first outing, featuring a prosecco van and motorcycle police. But, Dr Jo Sacks says, the free food was 'meh'.
Fun Factor
The general vibe of the race was happy and chilled and British Airways cabin crew in Union Flag wellies cheered us along the way.
The road along the bottom of the runway was a great distraction, too - it's hard to think about the pain you are in while an A380 is taking off over your head.
How was it for Loo?
The Portaloos were arranged in a horseshoe shape at the edge of the event village. This caused a little chaos as the queue formed in one long line, heading out of the area. There was several multi-user urinals though, so we didn't have too long to wait. The loo I used was clean and well stocked with loo roll and hand gel, too. Phew!
Bling: Fiddy Cent or tuppence ha’penny?
The medal was unique. It was designed like a boarding card to go with the BA/Gatwick theme. Good quality lanyard too. Another plus point for the kind volunteers who were actually hanging medals around necks rather than just handing them out. Personally, I’d have liked a large plane shaped medal (or flight pass!), but there’s always next year…
Good Grub or Cruel Gruel?
Meh. Just water and a banana (disclaimer: I hate bananas) -- BUT the food available to buy at the event village was fabulous. And the On stall was giving away popcorn. Winner.
Flat Stanley or Humpty Dumpty?
Single loop course, pretty flat except for one longish climb around mile 11 - and one short sharp shock right at the end! The first mile or two were in Crawley, and were not especially scenic, but the course then ran along the perimeter of the runway at Gatwick, which was a lot of fun, before a few country-lane miles lanes before looping back into town. I didn’t find it particularly congested - the roads were wide - and it was extremely well marshalled. There were also motorcycle police on hand - a good thing as someone tried to drive over a marshall and onto the course!
Trains, planes and ... a prosecco van: Dr Jo's race story
I chose to enter the RunGatwick half because I happened to see it on Twitter. I like trying new races and an old friend had told me she planned to enter too. After a lovely evening staying at her house, we travelled down to Crawley by train.
Crawley Station was actually inaccessible by train as it was a rail-replacement day (top planning!) but we got off a stop before and walked. It would probably have taken around 10 minutes if we’d just looked at the map, but we met a local and she assured us she knew where she was going. We ended up walking through a muddy wood and climbing through brambles to emerge near the event village. Ah well.
Thankfully, we'd left ourselves plenty of time and could still wander round the event village, where there were loads of freebies being given away, mostly by British Airways. They also had gimmick-free competitions to enter, with a spin-the-wheel game giving away genuinely free flights to some.
I have no idea what they were doing that took so long to collect people's bags - maybe it was all part of the airport-linked experience!
Then it was time for the mandatory loo queue; thankfully, it moved pretty fast. The baggage check queue was a different story entirely. I have no idea what they were doing that took so long to collect people's bags - maybe it was all part of the airport-linked experience!
After a few celeb runners were interviewed on stage - Colin Jackson, Sally Gunnell and Iwan Thomas - there was the obligatory race warm up (I know, why do they?) and after a shout out from the band on stage (my friend Emma knew the singer), we were off.
There were three water stations on the course but it was a warm day and I felt like they could have used just one more. They were well stocked, though, and the volunteers had clearly been trained to hand the water out for the runners' ease. I also saw people squeezing water out of the discarded bottles, so that they could be recycled -- a tick in the green race box.
Support on the was around was really good, with people holding up signs and giving out Jelly Babies. Obviously it was quiet out on the country roads, but in the town people had come out in force. We had a lot of fun on the course, chatting with the other runners, especially “white T-shirt guy”, who only decided to run that morning having run a parkrun PB the day before!
My friend Emma (right) had an amazing race, achieving a five minute personal best, and it was fab to get a shout out at the finish from race commentator Susie Chan. The volunteers at the end were great, too, making sure everyone got water and helping us to select the right size technical T-shirt, which had a nice design. Sadly, like pretty much all UK races I've run, the T-Shirt was unisex, so I’ll probably never wear it again.
We donned our new shirts for a photo on the podium before stretching out in the sunshine to refuel with food from the stalls in the event village. It wasn’t just the usual burger vans either. I had a fabulous chicken and hummus wrap with chargrilled veggies. There was also a coffee stall and a prosecco van. Nice.
Considering that this was a first-time event, it was extremely well organised. It was put on by the team who do Run Reigate, which I haven’t run but gets excellent write-ups. I’d definitely recommend this event, and I’d run it again.
If you are thinking of entering this or any other race, we can help with regular training planning and guidance. Happy running!
RunGatwick took place on May 13, 2018. The event date for 2019 is May 12 .
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