With some justification, the Farnborough Winter Half Marathon styles itself, as: "Not only the first major half marathon of the year, it is also one of the flattest, fastest routes in the South."

It is one of the biggest winter 13.1-milers, expanded to an entry limit of 3,000 for this year, with 2,398 finishers in 5:51:16 on Sunday 9 February. There is no cut-off time and to help runners toward the back of the field a run/walk pace team was introduced in 2023. This has proved so popular that it has become a permanent feature, making this the only half marathon with pacers that run from 90 minutes to 360 minutes!

It was bitterly cold two years ago; very windy last year, and merely cold and overcast this year. The capacity standard entry helped boost the charity places with fundraising for the Rainbow Trust – supporting families who have a child with a life-threatening or terminal illness.

The accompanying 5K race was dropped this year due to logistical issues with both events sharing part of the course and with several local parkruns in the area the day before, demand had been falling. This meant the full focus was on the half marathon which started at 9:00am under the Airship Hangar at Farnborough Business Park, built on the former Royal Aircraft Establishment HQ site at Farnborough.

The Farnborough Winter Half Marathon course loops around Farnborough Airport and Cody Technology Park and is completely traffic-free. Organisation is by 2:09 Events and all finishers receive a Farnborough Winter Half thermal race hat and shoe bag, High 5 nutrition products, and free digital photos to download.

The men's champion this year was sub-62 performer Adam Clarke (Aldershot, 1:03:46) who had over two minutes in hand over Max Milarvie (Tracksmith, 1:06:14 PB) and M45 Kevin Quinn (South London Harriers, 1:06:54).

The top three women all finished inside 80 minutes. W40 Ellie Monks (Southampton, 1:15:55) led the way from W35 Christa Cain (Best Athletics, 1:16:02 PB) and W40 Lisa Bailey (Stragglers, 1:18:32).

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

Image courtesy Click Sports for 2:09 Events