Sumara of Weymouth

12:30 Sunday 15th February 2026

Reading time: Four Minutes

Nerdiness Quotient: Not very boaty

My trainers always get taken on the boat but to be honest they are rarely used. By the time I moor up I just fancy a beer and a snooze.

However, every year I do try to enter three Half Marathons. Marathons are out of my league. Marlow Half in November, Deal in February and the dreaded Steyning Stinger is coming up in March. They are generally wrapped around social occasions. Today I am running the Deal Half. My fellow Vertue sailing friend Philip lives in Deal so we stay with him and have a decent Sunday lunch after the race. It might be a Half Marathon but we just talk about boats!

I sneaked in another run last week, the Begdebury 10 miler. A women at my outdoor fitness group asked if someone would like to join her, and thirty of us said YES! It pissed with rain but that didn’t matter, although next time I’ll take a dry bag for my jacket. The baggage drop was a tarp laid out near the start line. With all the rain, it acted like a pond liner!

I finished in 1 hour 47 minutes and 33 seconds. That speed should give me a time of 2 hour 20 minutes in the Deal Half, pretty slow!

I’m writing this on Saturday morning about to drive to Deal. With the blog scheduled as usual for 12:30 on Sunday.

These were my previous Deal Half results. Under two hours is now a distant memory.

• 2014 1 hour 46 minutes 48 seconds
• 2015 1 hour 44 minutes 43 seconds
• 2017 1 hour 50 minutes 46 seconds
• 2018 1 hour 55 minutes 02 seconds
• 2019 2 hours 07 minutes 12 seconds
• 2022 2 hours 05 minutes 57 seconds
• 2023 2 hours 04 minutes 08 seconds
• 2024 2 hours 12 minutes 27 seconds
• 2025 2 hours 07 minutes 54 seconds
• 2026 ?????

I’ll have to add my finish time later, assuming that I do finish!

Update Monday 16th February 2026

Well that was most definitely the grimmest Deal Half Marathon that I have entered! No criticism of the organisers who were as always er organised and cheerful. No it was the weather that was at fault, although of course there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes.

Saturday was wonderful and sunny, Sunday 09:00 was dry and fine but by 10:00 a biting strong southerly wind had picked up and it started raining. The temperature was 3 degrees C and the apps were saying the “Feels Like” temperature was minus 12. I have been in colder temperatures but not wearing a wet pair of shorts!

Despite having run about 30 half marathons, I still made all the errors possible:

• Minutes before the race, I suddenly decided to tear out the insoles for my walking shoes and slide them into my trainers – never try something new just before a race! I just about got away with that.
• I wore some old clapped out shorts and the elastic had gone. With the weight of water and almond bars in the back pocket they kept trying to fall off. After constantly tugging them up I eventually decided to tuck my merino tops inside the shorts to make me fatter. It kind of worked but I looked rather 118 118.
• I wore two heavy merino tops. “Wool keeps you warm even when wet” they say but not when running into a biting cold wind. It felt like running with frozen peas shoved up your jumper. It would have made more sense to wear one merino and a windproof and waterproof top.
• At the end of the race I forgot to stretch. For some reason I always forget at the end of a race. Just stupid.

Despite this insanity I got around and staggered over the finish line in 2 hours 16 minutes and 42 seconds, my worst ever result but with mitigating excuses. David Hutchinson, a 70+ runner finished in 2 hours 1 minute and 45 seconds. Toby Smith, who always seems to win, finished in 1 hour 15 minutes and 45 seconds, about 3 minutes slower than last year.

The finish line is a 10 minute walk back to the changing rooms. I stripped off my wet clothing and I reckon it all weighed 5 kg! I was shivering like crazy. When we arrived an hour late to the pub for lunch I ordered a pint of non-alcoholic beer but they said they hadn’t got any so in my hypothermic confused state I uttered “Red Wine?”. Bang goes alcohol free February. On arrival back in London we went down to the pub and sank a couple of pints of Shepard Neame’s IPA.

Wow, I slept well!