I took part in Andover trail marathon on Sunday the 1st September and had the best time I couldn’t not write a review!
I found the Andover Trail Marathon on the Let’s Do This Website (we are ambassadors) and booked my race place through them. It was a super cheap race only costing £35 for the full marathon and £25 for the half marathon.
We started our day at 6am with a ginormous bowl of chocolate peanut overnight oats before getting in the car and making our way down to Andover.
On Arrival we parked our car in the car park (it was a football pitch) just a 5 minute walk away from the start line. We arrived at around 8:30am as we wanted to ensure we had enough time to get sorted and ready to start.
The marathon started at Enham Trust where there were toilets (it was definitely a treat being able to use an actual toilet before a race!) and refreshments. The half marathon started at 9:15am and the marathon started at 9:30am there was only a small field of runners so we all crossed the line at the same time.
The route was absolutely beautiful there were views for miles and it was so peaceful. The route also offered a mixture of terrains which was great. We really cannot fault the route, there weren’t too many uphills and most of the uphills were in the first half of the race. We absolutely loved the downhills (there were quite a few of them) and we literally flew down them!
There were checkpoints around every 5 miles where you could stop and fill up your water and pick up some fuel. The snacks were included in the race which was very generous of them considering how reasonable the price of the race was. They had so much to choose including watermelon (my fave), grapes, flapjacks, hot cross buns, crisps and so much more.
The volunteers were all super friendly and so encouraging which gave us our smile back when the pain and tiredness kicked in! Oh and if you volunteer you get a free place the following year!
There were no toilets on route as you can imagine as it was in the middle of the countryside! Although a few of the checkpoints were located next to pubs which you could have probably used. We didn’t actually need the toilet throughout so we were okay.
It was a circular route and there is only one point throughout the race where you go back on yourself which is at the half way check Point but it’s not for very long and it was nice to cheers others coming the other way.
The route is very well sign posted and all you have to do is look out for the red and yellow flags as they will direct you. When there is a bend or a big turn off there will be a large yellow arrow as well which is hard to miss (unless you are me and basically run with your eyes shut 😂).
Honestly we had the best time running Andover Trail Marathon and I cannot recommend this race enough! We left which HUGE smiles on our faces and feel very happy with what we had achieved. If you have never done a trail marathon before then do one, they have a totally different vibe to road marathons and it feels like you are all running as a team!
