It's a happy 40th birthday to Run Barns Green Half Marathon – the race that put a big smile on the face of sub-two-hour finisher Claire Millar (1:57:26) pictured above last year! 

The 40th-anniversary run takes place on fully closed roads through the beautiful West Sussex countryside from Barns Green Village Hall, near Horsham, on Sunday 25 September 2022. And to help to celebrate this significant milestone you can get 10% OFF with discount code RUNABC22 when you sign up for this runABC South Featured Race here

As well as the BARR Gold Standard half marathon there is the 7th annual Barns Green 10K and the newly launched Jennings Junior Jog – a colour run for youngsters aged 4-11, named after long-term Chairman and Race Director, Vernon Jennings, who died earlier this year. Vernon put so much into the event and it was always his aim to create a race for youngsters. The Run Barns Green Committee is delighted that this will now come to fruition.

The adult races both start and finish beside Barns Green village green and head towards Itchingfield via Christ's Hospital and the magnificent school grounds. The half marathon is off at 10:00am and the 10K goes 20 minutes later. Jennings Junior Jog will occupy the kids at 12:30pm. The main races have chip timing, pace-setters, live music, and great medals. All finishers in the Jennings Junior Jog will also receive a medal.

Last year there were 1,054 finishers in both races and an average half marathon time of 2:25:32 – so Claire was well above average! An estimated £50,000 was raised for charity and the half marathon winners were 2019 champion Paul Navesey (City of Portsmouth AC, 1:10:26) and Dani Tarleton (Arena 80, 1:25:13). The 10K winners were M40 Patrick Martin (Waverley Harriers, 32:44) and Sophie Gunning (40:42) as 527 finished in 1:35:35.

Run Barns Green can trace its roots back to 1982 when just over 1,000 runners took part in the inaugural half marathon – an extraordinarily high number for those days. The race motto is ‘Vincit Qui Patitur’ (he conquers who endures). Following the first event, the President of Sussex County AAA wrote: “Here we have a race initiated by a few local jogging enthusiasts … blossoming in a short time to be the largest road race in Sussex, respected for its efficient organisation and welcomed by joggers and AAA Club members alike.”

The first winners were John Leversedge (1:08:40) and Tracey Howard (1:19:55) and fast times have been recorded ever since with course records of 1:04:28 by Edwin Kipyego (Kenya) in 2010 and 1:17:42 by Rebecca Moore (Worthing) in 2014.

Previous results and race information at runABC South race listing here

Image courtesy Run Barns Green on Facebook