Serpie Planner - event reports
Burnham Beeches Half Marathon (15 Aug 1999)
I have never run the Burnham Beeches Half Marathon until this year, which as I was to discover was more the pity, as I thoroughly enjoyed the run. It is two laps over an undulating course through woodland and roads in the Berkshire countryside. Eric Williams clearly hadn’t run the race before either, as the webmaster had to explain that it was nowhere near the beach!
I had been given my race instructions by the Peter Pan of the Serpentine Running Club – Bob Davidson: to refrain from going off like a “headless chicken” but to run the first half of the course slowly noting where all the undulations occur, and then gauging how I felt on the second lap.
I followed Bob’s instructions to the letter and along with Tony Leppard went through 5 miles at a sedate pace, although some confusion arose as Tony had misheard the time called out by the timekeeper and thought his stopwatch was playing up.
Having concentrated on the first lap, I felt comfortable at the beginning of the second lap seeing Peter Torre a few hundred yards in front of me up until the 10.5 mile stage where there is a long drag uphill which slowed me down over the last few miles. The worst part of the course was not the hills as I had envisaged but the very short sharp decline near the finish which with the comparative stopping speed of an oil tanker caused me a few problems.
Finally, congratulations to the Ladies Team who won the team prize for the second consecutive year. The full results are now on the web (webmaster warning: this site is slow), but I have with the webmaster’s assistance listed below the times of all those serpies who I am aware ran.
David Lipscomb
Burnham Beeches Half Marathon (17 Aug 2003)
Just thought I would wax lyrical for a moment on how
wonderful the Burnham Beeches Half Marathon was and
explode a couple of self instigated Myths that I was
lucky enough to explode all on my own the fri before
the event..
Burnham Beeches is definately spelt Beeches, NOT
Beaches and is in Slough NOT Somerset...nearly an
oops...
Burnham Beeches is a HILLY race NOT a FLAT race...
definately Hilly !!!! and yes the Burnham Joggers are
a sadistic bunch, chucking in a 1 in 4 300 metre hill
at almost the 13 mile mark and you don't even see it
coming as it is around a nice little left hander !!!
then giving us a lovely 20 foot leg breaker of a 1 in
3 drop, 400m from the line !!!and making us run past a
pub..... TWICE !!!! Terry nearly gave in to
temptation..... TWICE... :-))
Seriously though, Burnham was amazingly well organised
and an idyllic run, definately one for next years
calender as it will be their 25th....
Mark Hallows
Burnham Beeches Half Marathon (15 Aug 2004)
This is a great race set in beautiful countryside 45 minutes from London, and this year saw the 25th running of the event. The organisation by Burnham Joggers was outstanding and there were plenty of drinks stations, including one at the start. The race is hilly by London standards with a 50 foot ascent that you go up and down twice and most of the course is undulating.
A tough race for pb's - the outcome for the serpies this year was mixed with some having a good run and some struggling.
But this didn't stop the Ladies team of Vikki Sercombe, Christel Beukes and Hilary Walker coming third in the Ladies team event - well done to them!
Robert Maslen
Burnham Beeches Half Marathon (17 Aug 2008)
If Carlsberg did Half Marathons they probably wouldn’t call Burnham Beeches a PB course...
A well organised 2 lap course in rural settings mostly in the shades of the forest.
Definitely worth a visit for all those targeting an autumn marathon.
The Serpie women finished second;
2. Serpentine RC
14 31 70 = 115
2064 R Morris, 2273 J Payne, 2272 C Levermore
And the Serpie men fourth;
4. Serpentine RC
37 39 62 103 = 241
145 A Orr, 490 R Fanning, 487 L Olsen, 673 N Melville
Burnham Beeches Half Marathon (23 Aug 2009)
Andrew Van Heiningen has taken pictures of the Serpie finishers, and these are available at:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/vanheina/BurnhamBeeches#