Serpie Planner - event reports

St Albans Half Marathon (08 Jun 2003)

I saw at least four other Serpie vests/t-shirts, so I was by no means the only one. There were 1600 1/2 Marathon runners and a further 1500 or so fun runners, walkers and line dancers, yes line dancers, this was a very busy event. Verulam Park, which houses some ancient Roman ruins was buzzing with people & lot's of kids. And as this is a race run primarily to raise money for charity a good even to support. Local celebrity John Motson ran the course in just under two hours and John Wilson sent us on our way.



The race itself was fairly un-inspiring and the cones along the main roads, to keep the cars at bay, infuriating as they seemed to have a life of their own. I'll have to call the Cone Hot Line! There are some country roads but the majority of the course goes along B roads. It is undulating with the odd long/slow hill, but other than that an 'easy' course. Inclement weather held off till about an hour or two after the race, so as near perfect running weather as you can get. Warm, with no direct sun and no rain.



Well worth a few hours of your time, especially if you like icecream lollies, lucozade & a medal to finish with!

Andrew van Heiningen

St Albans Half Marathon (11 Jun 2006)

There was a new course for the 25th anniversary of this race, which had both it\'s good and bad points. It seemed that the change had been made to allow the race to go through the town. This was a nice idea in principle, but in order to achieve that there seems now be a lot of long drags along A roads and any downhills seemed to be quite short and sharp. To be honest though I didn\'t really think about the course that much. It was by far the hotest conditions I had ever raced in and I was far more interested in throwing water over myself at every opportunity. Luckily there were plenty of water stations along the way. I would reccomend leaving entry to the day if you\'re considering doing this next year and don\'t like heat.

Report by Robert Howells.

St Albans Half Marathon (09 Jun 2019)

Well organised and friendly race which has a local feel to it but attracted almost 2000 runners to the half marathon, split roughly 2/3 male and 1/3 female. The course on fully closed roads starts in Verulanum Park and winds its way very fluidly through predominantly country lanes with many gentle inclines that you start to feel in your legs after about mile 8. Crowd support is excellent, even at the ‘back’ of the course, plenty of water stations and gels around mile 10 (handy as I had dropped one of my own). It seemed like half of St. Albans was marshalling the course. A great (and very scenic) race which I thoroughly recommend, although you’re unlikely to PB with all the undulation