There were more than 600 finishers in the 42nd Burnham Beeches Half Marathon and 10K races on Sunday 13 August 2023, after just over 750 entries had been received. 

The first Burnham Beeches Half Marathon was an off-road affair on the Portman Estate over a course with various obstacles, including stiles. It was held on 9 September 1980 and the winners were Graham Patton (Massey Ferguson AC, 1:12:53) and Jill Standerwick (Porton Camp AC, 1:32:22). Some 346 runners competed and it's believed the course may have been a bit short!

The following year the race HQ moved to its present location at Caldicot School, following a route through and around Burnham Beeches and Dorney Woods. Although there have been a few course modifications over the years, the event still follows the same successful formula but now has a course distance certificate, so there are no more short measures!

The sun shone through the ancient woodland, creating a dappled effect that added to the beauty of the surroundings and almost (but not quite) took runners' minds off the tough hills on the route. Thankfully, there was a helpful chorus of support from Burnham Joggers' loudest marshal – Chorus, with his maracas – on the long climb up Dorneywood Road!

The top three in the Burnham Beeches Half Marathon were M40 Robert Jerrett (Sandhurst Joggers, 1:18.00), Tom Heslop (Kent AC, 1:18:37) and M40 Jonny Williams (unattached, 1:22:28). In the women's race the podium places were claimed by Isabel Stubbs (Witney Roadrunners, 1:26:31), Katy Ward (Marlow Striders, 1:26:57) and W50 Dawn Godwin (Maidenhead AC, 1:31:36).

There were 282 finishers in just under four hours, with many positive messages posted on social media, including this from Jenni Jones on Facebook: "Thank you to all the marshalls, water station and race volunteers, they were all very happy, supportive and made for another lovely race, love the mug, see you again next year."

The Burnham Beeches 10K had 324 finished in 1:41:51 and the winners were Liam Busby (Wycombe Phoenix Harriers, 33:01) and Nicola Penty-Alvarez (Hillingdon AC, 42:10).

Thanks to Burnham Joggers on Facebook for the video clip of the amazing marshal Chorus and to SmugMug for the photo of the half marathon start.

Results and previous race reports are available at runABC South race listing here.