Luke Goldsworthy, of RAF Athletics, flew to victory in 1:10:37 at the 43rd Burnham Beeches Half Marathon on Sunday 18 August 2024, organised by Burnham Joggers. Goldsworthy is pictured above (#126) in the RAF vest, taking an early lead at the start.

There was another capacity entry for the Burnham Beeches Half Marathon and supporting 10K races that use a mixture of closed roads and hard-surfaced paths through the cool shade of the Burnham Beeches ancient woodland in South Bucks. That shade was especially welcome as the usual post-race plunge in the local school swimming pool was unavailable this year.

By popular demand, following feedback from competitors, the course was again run in 'reverse' (clockwise direction) offering a new twist to this popular race. The use of plastics was minimised and runners were urged to bring their own water bottles, which could be filled in the Race Village at Caldicott School before and after the event. There were no finishers' T- shirts again this year to keep costs down and helping reduce the environmental impact of the event.

There were two water filling stations on the course, appreciated by the 299 finishers in the half marathon and 413 in the 10K on another warm day in the south of England. All finishers received a handsome commemorative medal – a collector's item as all places were sold out.

Burnham Beeches Half Marathon was first off at 09:15am and Luke Goldsworthy was worth gold as he finished a mile ahead of runners-up Daire Stack (Chiltern Harriers, 1:16:55) and David Harris-Cherguit (Fairlands Valley Spartans, 1:17:36).

The women's half marathon was headed by Reading Roadrunners' Nikki Gray (1:26:21) and Katherine Streams (1:22:47). Third-placed Stephanie James (1:29:41) was among the top 25 athletes who beat 90 minutes on this testing course.

Burnham Beeches 10K followed 15 minutes later and with his grandparents cheering from the sidelines Joseph Bartlett (unattached) took the victory in 34:30 from Derek Lloyd (Wycombe Phoenix Harriers, 37:22) and Charlie Edwards (Hillingdon AC, 37:46).

Nicola Penty-Alvarez (Hillingdon AC, 41:49) won the women's race ahead of Lu Mogg (unattached, 42:19) and Ellen Easten (Maidenhead AC, 44:37).

The results and previous race reports are available at the runABC South race listing here.

Photo of half marathon start courtesy of Burnham Joggers on Facebook