Shakespeare Half Marathon

My partner and I traveled to Stratford-upon-Avon to run a half marathon during Shakespeare's birthday weekend. I came away with my second-best half marathon time, and John ran a PB.

USA running outfit is back.

Why Shakespeare Half Marathon

I had originally considered the Shakespeare race when I was looking my first half marathon race to run in 2020. Luckily, I opted for Falmouth in March instead, which went ahead right before everything shut down during the pandemic.

I had looked into running the Shakespeare race last year, but I couldn't find reasonable train fares. Finally, 2024 was the year. I found reasonable train fares and accommodation (well, reasonable for 2024). My partner, John, said he'd join me as well, fulfilling my main criteria for 2024 racing: running with people.

The journey

We went by train, with one connection in Birmingham. I thought we had lucked out with there being no strikes impacting our journey and the train leaving on time, but right before we got to Birmingham, we got diverted off the main route due to an incident on the tracks.

This led to us missing our second train by a minute. Luckily, it was only a 15-minute wait until the next one, but by the time we got to our accommodation, it had been over 8 hours since we first left our house. It was a long day.

Ferris wheel and pizza

We didn't have too much time to explore Stratford-upon-Avon before dinner after such a long day of travel. One of the first things we did pass was a Ferris wheel, which looked appealing. If we didn't have much time to sight-see, at least I'd be able to get a view of the town.

Turns out Stratford-upon-Avon doesn't look that great from the sky. I'm a bit spoiled in Edinburgh when it comes to city skylines.

Stratford-upon-Avon from the Ferris wheel.

John was a bit scared on the Ferris wheel, though, which I enjoyed getting to watch.

My nervous Ferris wheel companion.

On the way to dinner, we passed this group of geese with their babies, and John, lover of cute animals, was in awe of the babies waddling around.

John loves his cute animals.

I had booked us in to a pizza place for our pre-race carbo loading. We ordered a cheesy garlic bread to start, which was sufficiently cheesy.

We didn't think the garlic bread would be so big.

I got a pizza that had truffle on it because I will order anything with truffle. It was alright, nothing special, but it was carbs and that's what I needed.

This restaurant was also the first place I tried Stratford-upon-Avon tap water. It's disgusting. Worst tap water I've had in the UK.

They gave us scissors to cut the pizza.

We did finally get to explore Stratford a bit after dinner, taking in the sights like Shakespeare's birthplace and schoolroom.

Shakespeare's birthplace.

Shakespeare's schoolroom.

Love's Labour's Lost

Being in the home of Shakespeare, I looked into whether any productions of his plays were on. Sure enough, the Royal Shakespeare Company were performing a production of Love's Labour's Lost.

I used to love going to see a Shakespeare play every year with my aunt as a kid, so I was quite keen at the chance to go.

It was absolutely phenomenal. I'm so glad I booked tickets. It was a modern-day retelling set in a Pacific Island location. The staging was incredible, with this rotating double staircase the story made good use of during the various scenes.

There was traditional island music throughout, and also a hilarious rendition of The Backstreet Boys' 'I Want It That Way' by the four male leads. The cast were great, and I was so impressed with their ability to make the original Shakespearean dialogue sound natural in the modern setting.

Music break at intermission.

The race

With no bags to drop off beforehand, John and I showed up to the start line shortly before we were set to run at 9am.

It was soon into our walk we converged with other runners making their way to the start.

Pre-race John.

I made sure to get in my jumping shot pre-race.

Pre-race jumping me.

Given I was wearing my American flag racing outfit, I also took the opportunity to take a picture in front of the USA flag pole in the center of Stratford-upon-Avon. There are a lot of international flags in the town. (According to the internet, this is something they do for Shakespeare's birthday celebrations.)

Matching the flag pole.

I had no specific targets for this race. I didn't think it was likely I'd get a PB. I was just hoping to be around the 2:10 mark.

Getting ready to start the race.

The first mile of the race was through central Stratford before branching out of the town. John and I ran the first mile and a bit together, but by mile 2, I lost sight of him as he sped ahead.

It was partly cloudy skies in the mid-40s (F) while we were running. Despite the temperature, it did feel uncomfortably warm when in direct sunlight.

Most of the course was out in the countryside outside Stratford, passing by lots of farms.

Up until mile 7, I was keeping a pace below 10 minutes each mile, which I was pretty pleased with. 

Then mile 7 was a gradual incline the whole way. It wasn't that steep, but it was a long time with no flat or downhill bits. For the rest of the race, I was over 10 minutes for each mile, but no more than 10:21, which was during that uphill mile.

Right before mile 10, the course unexpectedly turned into trails. I hadn't read anywhere that would happen, so it came as a bit of a shock to my legs, which were not prepared for a change of terrain. The trail carried on for a little over 2 miles.

The last mile was paved, but it was pavement along a park not in the greatest condition with tree roots having raised some bits.

I managed to keep a good pace and crossed the finish line at 2:08:51, which made it my second-best half marathon time.

I was surprised and impressed with myself because I genuinely didn't think my body was capable of getting an average pace of under 10 minute miles. John and I did technically train for this race, but only doing a few long weekend runs. I didn't change up with weekday routine of 2 5k runs.

John was absolutely on fire, though. He finished in 1:56:36. I'm incredibly proud he was able to keep such a fantastic pace for all those miles. He doesn't exactly get the best opportunity to test out his pace training with me and my much slower pace!

Posing with my sub-2-hour-running boyfriend.

Since we didn't drop off bags, this was the first race I took a foil blanket to. I've gotten so many from races over the years, but never use them because I usually have a bag I keep a jacket in.

It was a bit windy the day of the race, so the foil blanket around me looked like a cape. That combined with my American flag running outfit made John joke that I looked like Homelander.

Not sure I can ever wear a foil blanket again with this outfit after that comparison. (If you don't understand that reference, watch The Boys. But also maybe don't watch it.)

Lunch and a river boat cruise

We went out to a French restaurant for our post-race meal. It wasn't that great, but it was near our accommodation and it was food, which were the main criteria when finding where to eat.

Average food, but necessary food.

Right after lunch, we decided to go on a river boat cruise along the River Avon. It was a lovely little 30-minute jaunt on the river, which felt especially nice while the sun was shining.

Boat time!

We then headed to a gelato place, where I got an ice cream hot chocolate, hoping that meant a scoop of gelato would be added on top of my hot chocolate. It actually meant it was blended in with the hot chocolate. It was still tasty, but I missed the opportunity to eat gelato, too.

Boat selfie! These medals got us a gelato discount.

The best part about this place was they gave a 10% discount to runners, so a very important lesson there about why you should wear your medal when you go out after a race.

After resting for a while, we ventured out again for more food. We had previously said we would go for chips if we were still hungry at night, so for chips we went.

John, lover of chippies, mid-chew.

Running reflections

As I said already, I'm impressed with my time and incredibly proud of John. I think the thing I'm most impressed by is how okay my legs felt after for my second-best time. 

I remember immediately after the Great North Run how incredibly painful walking downhill or downstairs, and I ran that nearly 8 minutes slower than this race.

This race was also less than 2 minutes slower than my half race PB in Edinburgh, and I remember that feeling like the hardest I've ever run.

I didn't feel that at Stratford. I was certainly running faster than a training run, but I didn't feel like I was overly pushing myself. I don't know if that's because of the number of downhill bits in the course helping my time, or maybe I'm fitter than I think I am.

Whatever the case, I'm happy that I'm still capable of achieving times I'm proud of. That said, I don't feel the extreme jubilation I normally do at getting a good time. 

Maybe that's reflective of my changing relationship with racing. My aim this year was to run with people, and I think I'm simply pleased to just have the opportunity to get to spend the weekend with John and have him part of the race experience.

Branded post-race shot of us.

Next race

I don't have anything booked in, but I am slightly tempted by a trail race happening next month. We'll see.