Stroud Half Marathon was the latest race to celebrate a 40th anniversary run with 724 runners completing the 13.1-mile course from Marling School on Cainscross Road on Sunday (23rd October).

Among the finishers were Rosalind Duncan (#214) and Dominique Farmer (#235) – pictured above with utter joy coursing through their veins as they cross the line hand in hand in their Wiggly T's to help raise funds for the Stroud-based charity for children in treatment for cancer.

Rosalind and Dominique ran exactly 2:40:00 on gun times (2:39:18 on chip times by Race Nation Events) as Dominique was listed as finishing just ahead of Rosalind in 680th place. There were 430 runners home inside two hours and the whole field finished within four hours.

Proving that Stroud is a fast course despite the undulations, the top three men were separated by less than 30 seconds as they hammered out sub-72 minute efforts. And further joy was unleashed as local lad Lee Stopford (Stroud & District AC, 1:11:23) was the narrow winner from Adam Stokes (Bristol & West AC, 1:11:41) and Alex Lee (Western Tempo, 1:11:50). The first M40 master was Lonely Goat representative Andrew Kirkup (1:15:48).

Annabel Granger (Bristol & West AC, 1:23:30) led seven women under 90 minutes. She was followed through the finish gantry by Gemma Wilks (unattached, 1:26:23) and W35 Hannah D'Ambrosio (Western Tempo, 1:28:06). Rebecca Vincent (Hatch Warren Runners, 1:29:03) was the first W40 master in fifth overall.

The usual finishers' race T-shirts were not given away this year in order to reduce the environmental impact of the event. New style, more sustainable T-shirts could be purchased, though, and in their place every runner was offered free event photographs instead.

Many tributes were paid to the cheery marshals who got a soaking during the morning and the wooden medals also went down well. The slight alteration to the route was also praised as it avoided a busy stretch of the main road.

Results can be viewed via runABC South race listing here

Image courtesy Race Nation Events on Facebook