Cambridge Half Marathon has a reputation for being flat, fast and interesting. It's been on my bucket list for several years, and it's not an easy one to get an entry for. It's popular and one needs to pre-register to stand a chance of entering. I did manage to secure an entry for 2018 after a couple of previous attempts, but that year we had lots of snow in Norfolk and decided against travelling. I didn't try for 2019 as there was the brand new Ringland Half, but 2020 was an opportunity a second attempt. I'm glad I did as I enjoyed it.
We had a new course for Cambridge Half Marathon taking in the sites of a couple of the historic universities and organisation of the event was pretty slick. With 15,000 entries, 11,253 starters and 11,251 finishers it needed to be. Whilst OSB, organisers of The Outlaw series of triathlon, are the organisers it is clear that the city council also has a lot of input into the organisation of this event.
Getting to venue was fairly easy. Drive to a park and ride and use the bus ticket that you'd pre-ordered when entering, to get you to the venue. Once there, avail youself of facilities, drop off your bag, partake in the choreographed warm up routine (this was fun) and then get carolled into your appropriate starting pens to feed onto the course to start in 12 separate waves at 4 minute intervals starting from 9:30am. Despite such a staggered start there was still conjestions along the course where the course was constricted and where some of the VIPs from the first wave were being caught.
Course was interesting and varied. Weather conditions were really good for running. Whilst base layers were needed for the pre-start, they weren't required for running.
Once back to Midsummers it was a pretty efficient collection of medals, various goodies and your bag, before off into Cambridge for some lunch and then bus back to park and ride. Slowest bit of the day – probably that return park and ride bus due to road works on Cambridge's Newmarket Road.
If you fancy a big half marthon in a city centre with great support and isn't much more than an hour away from Norwich. Do check out this one.
Results of Tri-Anglia Members
| Pos. | Bibno. | Chip time | Participant | Category | Club | PB |
| 280 | 7520 | 01:22:57 | Kimberley Morrison | (F) 30-34 | Drag2Zero | yes |
| 995 | 4004 | 01:32:25 | Paolo De Marco | (M) 60-64 | Tri-Anglia Triathlon Club | |
| 1177 | 10074 | 01:34:14 | Miriam Tyler | (F) 25-29 | City of Norwich Athletics Club | |
| 1192 | 8351 | 01:34:24 | Craig Powell | (M) 30-34 | Tri-Anglia Triathlon | |
| 1293 | 2983 | 01:35:18 | Mark Brown | (M) 50-54 | Tri-Anglia Triathlon Club | |
| 2103 | 7369 | 01:40:45 | James Millson | (M) 35-39 | Tri-Anglia | |
| 2906 | 1150 | 01:44:51 | Rob Lines | (M) 50-54 | Tri-Anglia Triathlon Club | |
| 4262 | 3864 | 01:51:38 | Patrick Cutting | (M) 50-54 | Tri-Anglia | |
| 4384 | 13402 | 01:52:15 | Karen Rix | (F) 50-54 | Norfolk Gazelles | |
| 4939 | 1127 | 01:54:40 | Iain Johnson | (M) 50-54 | Tri-Anglia | |
| 7253 | 2964 | 02:05:51 | Della Brown | (F) 50-54 | Tri-Anglia Triathlon Club | |
| 10846 | 11043 | 02:45:59 | Pamela Abbott | (F) 55-59 | Cambridge & Coleridge |
Full results at https://resultsbase.net/event/5238/results
