Oxford Half Marathon race report

Report by Graham Lougher

As I live local to Oxford and had not yet run the Oxford Half Marathon, I wanted to tick it off.

I signed up in January on "early bird" after being served numerous ads on Instagram and because a friend looking for a post-baby challenge asked me to sign up. (She didn't make it, unfortunately).

After witnessing the park and ride chaos last year, we got to Redbridge early.

This meant we had a long time waiting before the race village was good, but I didn’t fancy a burger or a pint at 7am.

My only gripe about the race was that we were herded into our start pens and kept there for an hour, enough time to get freezing cold.

The route is a good twisty route for Oxford, some of it familiar from mota-vation. The bands along Marston Ferry Road made up for the slog of that road. They included a soul band, a bagpipe group and a rock band.

The medal was good. Overall, I’m pleased I've ticked it off, but I'm not in a rush to do it again.

The great medal from the Oxford Half.