Stroud Half Marathon – Volunteering and the Injury

Last weekend was Stroud Half Marathon. It is a more local half marathon than Cardiff and obviously a lot smaller. It isn’t exactly a flat one but our son is good at hills. So when a local runner was only 5 seconds faster than him at Cardiff Half they both thought that this would be a good way to challenge each other.

Volunteering at Stroud Half Marathon

With our son wanting to race more and more, I thought it would be a good idea to offer to volunteer. In fact his next half marathon I got a free place (due to the fact it is the same running company as Alton Towers – where I volunteered as a pacer).

Stroud Half Marathon were really good in letting me be a volunteer, as it was very last minute.

My Volunteer Position at Stroud Half Marathon

Plus they were also really good and put me in a position whereby I would still make it back to the finish in time to see our son. This with an aim of being sub 90. Actually I made it back in time to see the amazing first finisher Dylan Gillet, who came across in less than 69 minutes!

I am super grateful that they were very accommodating of this.

Where I was positioned was around the 2 1/2 mile mark, according to my friend Sarah who also ran in it. In fact everyone (apart from Councillor Gill Thomas who had her work cut out trying to collect all the rubbish she found on the way) managed to make it past me in quite a good time.

My Role

My role was really straightforward and I think I was lucky to get an easy spot. Basically make sure everyone was safe with no obstructions in the road. To hold back traffic if need be. Generally I think cheering and making sure everyone was okay. They all seemed to know where they were heading.

Problems

The race went past the entrance and exit to a garage and that really there wasn’t much of a break in the runners. However, all the drivers were patient and it wasn’t really that long before everyone had gone by.

The only other thing was that not all of the participants were keeping left, so it was hard for drivers to head towards them. This was even more of an issue when the pacers came by – as obviously people were going really wide to be level with the pacer.

Again, though everyone was really patient. When I shouted keep left people did move over so the cars could go that way. Luckily those coming out of my junction already knew to go slow too.

The only other thing is I didn’t realise that Keiran Wright had started early. He was carrying a 120lb/55kg pack and was there breaking the Guinness World Record. Both myself and my husband were just confused that there were people going by with race bibs on and were unsure whether to cheer or not!

None of these were major things though. The volunteer coordinator did asked if there were any problems when handing my jacket it in too.

Parent Experience of Son Running Stroud Half Marathon

Bib

Race bibs could be collected either the night before or on the day of the race. As I already had to go and collect my hi-vis too we opted to do it on the morning. Someone told me that I needed to collect from the same queue as the race numbers so I joined the queue as our son went to the toilet.

When I reached the front the lady was a bit hesitant in giving me our son’s number, but did. Probably due to the no transfers within 4 weeks of the race rule. Then she directed me to someone else who gave me a jacket and then directed me to someone else again to tick me off a list.

Club

Obviously I couldn’t really wait around and see him start – as I wanted to make sure that I was in place when the lead car went past. However people from his club had arrived, and well he’s a mature 17 year old, so I left them together.

My Position

As he flew past my position he was going strong. Running well in front of Jody, the 90 minute pacer.

Whilst I was at the Finish of Stroud Half Marathon

When I was at the finish I received a message from our son’s friend’s mum to say that she had seen our son at mile 10. That now he was just behind the 90 minute pacer. At this point I thought that was fair enough as it was only 3 weeks since Cardiff and the challenger runner (who was also injured) had warned us that by mile 10 things start to feel hard.

Losing his Footing at Stroud Half Marathon

But then I received a message from our son saying that he had tripped on an uneven bit of road and hurt his leg. Next he told me that he had run for a bit slowly but that now he was walking. My husband suggested we head back down the course to see if he was okay. So there I am with my big camera and in a pair of jeans trying to run back to him. He messaged again to say that he still had 3.5km to go.

Back down the Course

Along the way I passed many people I knew. It felt like he was so far away and I felt so gutted for him. But also I was worried about whether he would need to pull out of the race and we would have to get the car to him.

Eventually I saw him and gave him my water. The water on the course were in little cups and he said most of it just went down his t-shirt. That it also meant he didn’t have water to take with the gel – and he hadn’t liked that.

Jogging

After this he started jogging along. Then my husband caught up with us and took my camera off me (so that it was easier for me to run).

At this point I overheard a man saying something to a child about seeing the people struggling now. It felt like he was going to say something negative – like they hadn’t trained or something. Despite being angry and wanting to hear what he had to say I was still worried about my child – and still wearing my volunteer vest.

So off I went running up the hill in my jeans. Eventually I just gave up – even injured there was no way I could keep up with our son!

After the Finish

So I went straight through the carpark to the finish and found him with his running club. He said he had managed to use both legs and run the last bit. Despite the injury and all the walking he finished in a very respectable 1:39:46 and achieved a 10k PB of 40:56.

Since

He had training with work that night. This resulted in him having to be rescued from the pool when he got cramp. The next day I managed to secure him a massage – but he could hardly walk so said he didn’t want it. He also had to cancel his driving lesson. He has since missed several races, visited minor injuries and is still in pain.