Sarah Rawlings took another stab at this half marathon today as a Mother’s Day treat. Organised by Retford Athletic Club, the popular Retford half takes place in Retford (surprise, surprise!), a Nottinghamshire town with fine Georgian buildings, a spacious square, and two theatres. Billed as a great warm up event for those doing a Spring marathon such as London, Manchester or Brighton or a challenge in it’s own right. Unfortunately the weather had other ideas than for running in today with Sarah commenting that a swimming costume would have been a very handy bit of kit! The course offers plenty of PB potential, with an almost completely flat first 5 miles from the start in front of the Oaks Academy heading out of Retford along North Road towards Barnby Moor. A small hill from Barnby Moor than flattens again for approximately a mile, before a left turn into Torworth which brings the runners onto a winding lane with some long inclines out to Blyth Road. From this point the course is mostly downhill back to Barnby Moor (9 mile point), before the runners head right to join a long undulating country road heading back out to the main Worksop road (11 mile point). A steady downhill slope takes the runners to a short sharp hill at 12.5 miles before turning back into Ordsall and heading for the finish. All finishers received a commemorative medal, water bottle & drawstirng bag!Sarah smashed the distance posting a very respectable time of 02:09:00 Fantastic effort and great running Sarah, well done!
