Today was the Bath Half Marathon (in case you hadn't heard)

The entire day today was devoted to the Half Marathon in Bath. Not just my day—though it was, for sure—but everyone, everything, and everywhere in central Bath was somehow occupied with the race from early this morning until about 3:30 in the afternoon.

The run was supposed to start at 11 am, but at about 10:00 there was an announcement in the starting area that there would be a 30 minute delay, as the police were not done clearing the streets, and so in fact the race would now start at 11:30. This was probably a tremendous relief to the people standing in the porta-potty lines. Not so much for those who had already taken their turn and had to wait a half hour more than expected to start running.*

In my trips to and from the two Starbucks, and trying to do a warm-up run around the nearby streets, everywhere I looked I saw people in running clothes and race bibs, sometimes accompanied by friends dressed in street clothes. The few genuine tourists around, some trailing their rolling suitcases behind them, unaffiliated with runners, probably felt rather bewildered by the mobs surrrounding them on an otherwise unspectacular Sunday morning in Bath.

15,000 people had registered for this run, and by 11:15 they were all congregated in the area around the Pulteney Street start line.

In addition to the 15,000 runners, there appeared to be that many and more people lining the streets of Bath to watch and cheer the runners. Much of the way, and particularly in the the in-town portions of the run, spectators were lined several deep, packing the sidewalks. Even in the most remote portions of the run, which would be the outer parts of the loop at about four miles and nine miles, people were scattered along the road clapping and cheering as we ran by.

The route was configured so that we essential ran the whole thing twice. From the start in Pulteney Street, we followed Pulteney Road then veered into the city center just west of the railway station. We ran around Queen Square (three sides) then west along Upper Bristol Road until it joined with Lower Bristol Road, turning and following Lower Bristol Road back toward town there. Shortly past the 10K point we turned back into the city center, then repeated the Queen Square, Upper and Lower Bristol Road portions. Finally, we stayed on Pulteney Road all the way back to the finish line (same as the start).

After crossing the finish line all the runners were herded along toward a rugby field which is below the Parade Gardens on the river (I think this is the location, I just followed the mob). It took more than half an hour from the time I crossed the finish to make my way out to the street, where I had a very quick walk over to the Abbey Courtyard to meet my parents.

I had told them I would meet them at 2:00. I must have been somewhat prescient, because although I got there at 2:30, when you consider the half hour delayed start, I was right on schedule. Even over by the Abbey, at least every other person I saw was a runner, now wearing a finisher's medal around his or her neck!

My parents were waiting, as directed, on a bench outside the Tourist Information Centre, in the shadow of Bath Abbey.** As a post-race treat, I bought us each an ice cream cone.

After that, all we really wanted to do was go back to the hotel. We headed back toward the railway station, because that was the direction of the hotel. Either we could catch a taxi or start walking uphill from there. The roads which had been closed to traffic were open again now, and apparently everyone in Bath was ready to go somewhere in a taxi. Waiting in line did not seem appealing. (Of course, if you ask my mother, walking up the hill was not in the least appealing either.)

Earlier in the morning I had measured the walking distance from the hotel to the railway station and found it was "only" about 1.1 miles. "Only" 1.1 miles is one thing walking downhill, but quite another going uphill! Still, we plugged along up the hill and actually, my legs didn't feel too bad while I was walking. It was just every time I stopped for a while that they got stiff!

I returned to the hotel a bit past 4:00 and, truly, the whole day had revolved around the half marathon. The only thing left to do was take a shower and head back down to the Bear pub (half a mile from the hotel, per this morning's measurements) for dinner.

Some other pictures from the half-marathon—mostly of other people running, as my parents never managed to spot me—can be viewed here.


*Ninety minutes? That would definitely call for at least one additional potty stop before the start. I personally went four times between 10 and 11 a.m. (it's a running thing, not a bladder infection), each time at Starbucks, with a wait of no more than four persons ahead of me each time. No porta-potties for me! (I noted that every time I passed the large banks of porta-potties, they had very, very long lines.)

**That is a figurative expression. The sun was still out and there was no shadow in our direction.