NOT SO SWIFT HALF
THE BOURNEMOUTH HALF MARATHON, ALONG DORSET’S SANDY BEACHES, DELIVERS SPECTACULAR SCENERY IN, ER, SPADES
WORDS: LISA JACKSON
At the National Running Show in January this year I bumped in to a man named Ken. He had helped me get around the Edinburgh Marathon 19 years earlier, and we enthusiastically agreed to run the 2018 Bournemouth Marathon together. Fate, however, had other plans.
The hottest summer in living memory, plus a bonkers work schedule, meant I had to downgrade from doing the full marathon to the half, as it was highly unlikely I’d be able to beat the marathon’s cut-off time of 6hrs 30mins. Sadly this meant not running with Ken. But I did have dinner with him the night before, when he told me another runner he had supported had thanked him with the words, “How wonderful the day when kissed by kindness”. I vowed this phrase would be my new motto.