Deep in the throws of his marathon prep work for London, Rob McTaggart went over to Woking for a first attempt at the Surrey Half Marathon. In previous years he’s often done the Wokingham Half Marathon and then one other one in March. Last year he did the Bath Half and finished in just under 69 minutes. His marathon training invariably tends to get him into pretty good shape by this stage in the proceedings.

It was a good second half of the year for Tag in 2024 and came away with a victory in the Purbeck 10k and 2nd place in the Lordshill 10k. He then went on to end the year on a high as part of a Bournemouth AC one, two, three at the Boscombe 10k with Abdinasir Mohamoud and Joe Arundel.

This year he’d picked up from where he left off, winning the Broadstone Quarter Marathon on New Year’s Day, then running his third fastest ever 10k time of 31:39 at the Stubbington 10k. Then he ran his fastest ever Lytchett 10 time to finish third in that race behind Fred Harris of Poole AC and Chris Peck of Egdon Heath Harriers.

The course for the Surrey Half is quite deceptive as it seems fairly flat on the elevation graph but in reality, it’s not as easy as it looks. It’s actually slightly uphill for most of the first 10 miles. Then after that it’s a long slight descent for the final 5k.

That would be enough to slow down most runners but Tag is made of sterner stuff. He ran brilliantly for the first six miles, getting through each split in around 5:10 to 5:15 pace. That took him through 10k in 32:45, which was a promising start.

After that he got a stitch though and then had some bad stomach issues for the next three miles. He was still going at around 5:25 to 5:30 pace though so it wasn’t a huge drop off. After that he was alright though and got back on it.

Mile 10 is quite tough as it contains the hill that you have to go up before reaching the turning point. Registering a 5:29 for that split, it should then have been plain sailing all the way to the finish.

Picking up the pace well, Tag managed to get back to 5:18 pace which wasn’t far off what he doing for the first six miles. He kept that going well all the way to the finish where he went over the line in 1 hour 9 minutes and 33 seconds. That was enough to put him in 15th place out of 2,870 runners.

He may not have known it at the time but he was actually in a race for first V35 with Roman Banias of Veterans AC. Roman finished two seconds ahead of Tag in the end so would have claimed the age category prize if there was one.

It was a good performance from Tag though, especially given that it wasn’t an overly quick course and the stomach issues he had for part of the race. His average pace for the run came out at 5:18.

Samuel Gebreselassie of Belgrave Harriers won the race in a time of 1:05:39. He finished just behind Jaymee Domoney in the Podium 5k race that took place in February.

Samuel just managed to fend off competition from Jonathan Cornish of Hercules Wimbledon who was second in 1:05:43. Jonathan often trains with the elite Poole AC group and was the man who finished second behind Abdinasir Mohamoud at the Wimborne 10 in November. In fact, it was his course record from the previous year that Abdi broke.

Jack Millar of Bristol and West finished third in 1:05:52 and those three were quite a way ahead of anyone else. Six men finished in under 1 hour 7 minutes which showed it was a good standard field.

Patrick Martin was first V40, crossing the line in 1:08:21 which put him 11th overall. Ollie Garrod of Belgrave Harriers finished 12th in 1:08:32. He’s used to winning most the races he participates in and even won the Run Bournemouth Half Marathon in 2023.

Southampton man Max Costley finished 20th in 1:10:57 and Paul Martelletti of Victoria Park Harriers and Tower Hamlets was 1st V45 and 27th in 1:12:19.

Next up for Tag was the Bournemouth Bay Run Half Marathon which he was planning to do at marathon pace. His marathon pace had usually been enough to win the race in the past but this time he had Bournemouth AC teammate Joe Arundel contending for it as well. That would make for an intriguing contest if Tag went for it.