Surrey Half Marathon, 22 Mar 2026
I woke up bright and early at 6.30am to get a decent breakfast in (bagel with peanut butter and a banana), with my race starting at 9am. Fortunately Surrey Half starts the town over from where I live so it was only a 15 minute drive for my partner to drop me off at the start. It was a very misty morning with poor visibility and as I walked up to the event village I was slightly questioning whether the sunglasses I had brought were necessary.
I joined several other runners for a 10 minute warm up run around the local park next to (but not part of) the race start line. I felt a little nervous but fairly prepared. My goal was to be conservative, start slow and maybe push a bit if I felt OK later on. I was aiming for roughly 2:30. However this being my first half marathon, I knew that whatever time I got would be a PB!
9am hit, and the sun started to make an appearance. I had joined towards the back of the 3,000 runners. The clock struck 9.10 and we were off! The first 5k I took nice and steady, sticking to my goal pace. I let any keen runners start faster and tried not to worry about being overtaken and to just run my own race. I knew with 21km of running to go, and no experience running this far I wanted to be conservative and not burn out half way through.
10k and 2 gels in, still feeling surprisingly good. I was a little ahead of my goal time but decided to go off feel and keep the pace up as long as it felt comfortable. The only confusing thing was the race signage was all in miles but my brain only works in kilometres so I had to keep converting!
15km in, still feeling OK. Fortunately it's a reasonably flat route with a few undulations and I'm familiar with the roads so I knew when to expect the uphill parts and plan for them.
From 15k-20k my legs were starting to feel it a bit, but I told myself "just one Parkrun left" to try and motivate myself. The final 5k went by in a bit of a blur, with the sun shining brightly down on the quiet country lanes and the occasional householders standing on their drive generously handing out sweets and shouting encouragement.
The last 1km felt quite emotional. I had done my first half marathon, and whilst it was hard it wasn't quite as hard as I expected (shout out to Tim's training plans!). I only started running a couple years ago and am still learning a lot.
I approached the countdown of the final 800m sign, then 400m. Just one athletics track to go, as my legs started to feel it by then. The final 100m was a blur of masses of spectators cheering on the finishing chute as I kept the pace steady to cross the line.
Overall I am pleased with the result. I could have maybe pushed a bit more, but I'm glad I didn't. It leaves plenty of scope for improved times in the future. I felt like I got my nutrition strategy right (thanks to Tim's guides that I read thoroughly) and paced it like I had planned. I would definitely recommend the race for a flatish road race with a potential to PB.
Sarah Fisher