Half marathon impossible to resist for impressive Carter
DESPITE the stiff and sore legs, Alex Carter is delighted that he made a late decision to race the Bath half marathon.
A broken arm has curtailed Carter’s racing and training schedule over recent months and his last competitive action before Sunday was a lowkey parkrun in Wiltshire at the end of January.
Two weeks ago, Carter reckoned he was so out of shape that there was no way he could race 13.1 miles, but the lure of racing Bath again – he made his debut at the distance last year and clocked 75mins 06secs, which he subsequently eclipsed with 68:36 in Bristol – proved irresistible.
“It was literally a last minute decision to run the race, as I have only been for two runs in the past month, one being the Bath half,” said Carter.
“It felt tough, but nice to get the legs moving again, although I was expecting to run much slower.”
Carter probably started off fast and at the end of the first lap Team Bath endurance coach Paul King reckoned he was on 66/67 minutes pace, with Aaron Pritchard not far behind as he chased his first sub-70 minutes time after a strong build-up.
But for both runners, a combination of the pace allied with damp, wet conditions, which certainly led to Pritchard cramping up, saw them slow down on the second circuit.
For a while they ran together before Carter kicked ahead in the closing stages – as befits a man who once won a silver medal over 3,000m at the English Schools’ Championships – to finish top Team Bath man in a time of 71:46. Pritchard chased him home two seconds adrift.
Afterwards, Carter restated his support for the race despite the controversy over whether it should have gone ahead due to the coronavirus outbreak.
“I was definitely a sup- porter of the race going ahead, so really glad that it did,” added Carter.
“While running around the course, although there were noticeably less people about, everyone that turned up to support were really loud, especially our Bath contingent.
“I think that many of the elite field turned out and it was understandable that some charities had concerns and therefore didn’t promote their runners to participate.
“Overall, this could be one of the last major road races that is allowed to take place in the next few months, so it was great to see the 6,000 who turned up getting the job done.”
Pritchard was clearly disappointed with his effort, having had high hopes of smashing the PB of 71:29 that he ran last year.
“Just one of those days, I think, and conditions didn’t help,” he said.
“Legs cramped up and head suffered after that but I’ll be back again.”
Top club woman was Lizzie Wraith as she carved 38 seconds off her three-yearold PB set on the same course. That run also gave her third place in the masters’ over-35 age group.
Other good runs in the age groups inevitably included David Vaudin finishing second M60, while Tom
Hutchison was third in the M65 category.
Mark Mackintosh was fourth M55, Pat Rogers came seventh in the M70 class and Mike Dooley was eighth M50. Lisa Bennett was fifth in the W50 category.
At the other end of the age spectrum, Themis Bower was fifth under20 to finish in a time of 73:48, smashing his PB of 76:22 which he ran in Bath last year. Team Bath AC – men: 43 Alex Carter 71:46; 45 Aaron Pritchard 71:48; 68 Matt Wilton (M40) 72:56; 75 Matthew Freeman 73:08; 80 Themis Bower (U20) 73:48; 93 Matt Wells (M40) 74:57; 110 Peter Grist 76:48; 156 Chris Milbourne 78:15; 179 Mike Dooley (M50) 80:08; 221 Mark Mackintosh (M55) 82:03; 250 Patrick Cobb 83:30; 276 David Vaudin (M60) 84:42; 302 Carl Tucker (M50) 85:16; 426 Ben Ashby 85:53; 391 Lee Allen (M40) 87:36; 518 Owen Davies 90:21; 615 Tom Hutchison (M65) 92:36; 639 Ben Robinson 92.40; 751 Malcolm Treby (M45) 95:33; 799 Nick Worboys (M45) 96:05; 913 David Gunstone (M60) 97:59; 1123 Joel Staley (M40) 1:38.10; 1542 Bruce Cotterill (M50) 1:42.07; 1251 Michael Charlton (M60) 1:42.16. Women: 357 Lizzie Wraith (W35) 86:36; 425 Lizzi Pitt 88:17 691 Nina Davies (W45) 90:57; 742 Rachel Burns 95:04; 929 Storm Hayward 97:42; 985 Lisa Bennett (W50) 98: 31; 1236 Amy Britton 1:41.39; 1622 Debbie Heywood (W40) 1:43.52; 1473 Claire Forster (W40) 1:44.10; 1573 Sevim Sangwell (W45) 1:45.20.
■ For more coverage of the Bath halfmarathon, see pages 23-26.
■ The athletics coverage in the Chron is sponsored by Running Bath.