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how many places are available in the half
marathon ?

Could YOU run the inaugural Tonbridge Half Marathon?????

A number of people have suggested to me that a half marathon might be too difficult to run as they've never done anything like it before. If you think that you are going to walk most of the way, you would not finish in under 4 hours time limit. You might therefore like to think about trying a 10k event before you move up to the half marathon. The Tunbridge Wells 10k, organised by Hospice in the Weald, takes place a week before ours.

ALTERNATIVELY, start training now and you will certainly be ready to run the event on 25th September. When I did my one and only half marathon, I trained for 4 months. I started by jogging slowly out from my house for two minutes and then jogging back again. Next time I increased the outward leg by one minute, so the whole run by 2 minutes. I trained 3 or 4 times a week, normally Tuesday Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, adding two minutes each time. After 6 weeks, I was running for about 40 minutes and feeling very good. After 12 weeks I was running for up to an hour and a half and a distance of 9-10k. By a fortnight before the race, I was running up to 16k twice a week interspersed with a couple of shorter runs. I then eased back a bit in the final week and managed the whole 21k without any problems.

If you want to go for it, my advice is to start training now and build up slowly. As you get fitter, you'll enjoy it more. Train with friends if possible for mutual support. It depends to a certain extent how old and generally fit you are and whether you have dodgy knees, but if you're under 50 and all other things being equal, you should have no trouble completing the course in under 3 hours! If you're over 50 it may take a bit longer. You won't know unless you try!

Andy Blundell Race Director