On a busy old weekend for races in the runABC South region, the fully subscribed Wokingham Half Marathon stood out on Sunday 26 February with 2,500 official finishers in 3:37:11 and a world age-group record by W65 Christine Kennedy (USA, 1:32:43).

Described on the event website as: “one of the best-kept secrets in the running world”, the Wokingham Half Marathon is held on fully closed roads from Cantley Park and the impressive course records are owned by GB internationals Phil Wicks (1:03:14) and Liz Yelling (Bedford & County, 1:11:09).

An example of the many positive post-race comments on social media was this posted on Facebook by Clare Spedding (2,455th in 2:42:03): “This was my first half marathon and it was fab! My only goal was to finish and I did better than I could have hoped for. It was such a great atmosphere. All the volunteers and the public out supporting us were lovely and really helped us round. I might even do it again next year!”

The overall race winner was Scott Cousins (Springfield Striders, 1:05:10 PB) who ran the third fastest half marathon by a British athlete so far this year, despite the undulating course and a nagging breeze. Close behind was Ryde Harriers’ Matt Sharp (1:05:43) who won the Ryde 10 in 52:09 on 5 February. Third place went to Tom Austin (Poole AC, 1:07:11 PB).

This year’s female champion also shook up the national rankings. Lauren Reed (Havering AC, 1:14:11) moved to eighth in the UK with her personal best time ahead of Tessa McCormick (Vale Royal AC, 1:14:53 PB) and Isabelle Pickett (Best Athletics London, 1:15:36 PB).

Finishing 80th in the women’s event was Christine Kennedy (USA) representing Orion Harriers. Her chip time (1:32:43) surpasses the 1:32:56 run by Emmi Luthi (Switzerland) at Aarhus, Denmark, in 2009 while competing in the European Veterans Non-Stadia Championships, incidentally finishing ahead of your correspondent in that race – small world!

A whopping 556 athletes ran inside 90 minutes and at least 1,800 beat two hours this year.

Wokingham Half Marathon is sponsored by David Cliff Estate Agents and race management is by Racesolutions.     

Full results and previous stories are available at runABC South race listing.

Image by Epic Action Imagery courtesy of Wokingham Half Marathon website