Blurb
ON THE DAY
THE START
After the warm up your asked to que in your predicted finish times.
ROUTE
Commencing and concluding within the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the route follows alongside the London 2012 Olympic Venues before venturing into closed roads.
The route is quite twisty with lots of turns but probably looks worse than it actually is when you look at the route map.
This course gives you the opportunity to take in the inspiring atmosphere of the park and surrounding traffic free roads that are well supported.
One of the best parts for me was running on the warm up track of the Olympic stadium. As someone who is nuts about the Olympics this was a real highlight!
It has a couple of cheeky inclines but nothing major, just enough to put a sting in your legs. Two in particular inclines towards the end take the momentum out of your legs a little just as your getting tired but overall, considering the twists and turns it is surprising a fast enjoyable course.
You can view my Strava activity HERE to see elevations and course detail.
WATER STATIONS
There were plenty of water stations on the course. From memory these were at 3, 6, 9 and 11 miles.
PACERS
There were a number of pacers on the course to help you hit your target time.
I saw pacers for 1:45, 1:50, 1:55 near the start so I can only presume they were in 5 minute increments.
TOILETS
There are toilets at the start and finish of the race inside the Olympic stadium. I did see some portable toilets on the course as well.
WEATHER
We were pretty lucky with the weather considering it was February, although it was still cold it was a gloriously sunny morning.
A vast improvement on last months Richmond Parks half marathon when it was freezing!
GETTING THERE
As it starts and finishes in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic park, one of the huge benefits of the London Half is how easy it is to get there by public transport or car.
Stratford train station is only a short walk away and their is plenty of parking near by.
PARKING
We parked at Westfields Stratford City car park. It cost £28 but we travelled quite early the previous day as we were staying over to make the most of the weekend.
HOTEL
We stayed at The Gantry by Hilton, which is around 10 minutes walk away from the Olympic park.
Great hotel and we enjoyed our stay, we will use it again in May when I do the Hackney half marathon.
AFTER THE EVENT
MEDAL
A decent chunky metal medal. A bit generic with no date on it so I am guessing your probably get the same medal every year.
GOODIES
There was no goodie bag but at the finish line there were goodies from Trek, Love Corn, biscuits, bananas and water available to finishers.
PHOTOS
There are plenty of photographers on the course taking photos.
I could only find a couple of photos of me in the official race day photos.
It is a really busy race so try to avoid getting bunched up in crowds if you want the race photographers to see your race number.
SUPPORT
There is plenty of support on the course especially on the closed roads and around the Olympic venues.
There are also plenty of marshals to give you encouragement and make sure your going in the right direction.
PRICE
I paid £36 for an early bird entry.
I also paid £3 for the race bib to be posted to me and £1.70 booking fee to Lets Do This.
In total this was £40.70, which considering it was a half marathon in London, I thought it was pretty good value.
WHO ORGANISES IT?
The race is organised by RunThrough.
HOW TO ENTER?
You can enter on their website londonhalf.com
THINGS TO BEAR IN MIND
- It is a really busy race
- Get there early to use the toilets and bag drop.
- With a bit of planning your cheer squad can see you at quite a few points.
- There is also a 10KM race on the day.
RACE DAY KIT
I wore the following race day kit:
- Soar Running Printed Tech T-Shirt
- Saysky Combat+ 9 Inch Short Tights
- New Balance Arm Sleeves
- SHYU Race Day Socks
- Adidas Pro 4 Trainers
SHARE
If you found this blog post useful, please share it using the social media buttons below.