Forest of Dean Trails Half Marathon

Tewkesbury fielded nine athletes in this popular spring half-marathon. Starting and finishing at the famous Speech House, over 2,500 runners out-numbered the Wild Boar (just!).

Taking on the greatest challenge must have been Elaine Vincent who was rumored to have never ran over an 8 mile run in 2017 – it must have been incredibly tough over the last couple of miles as the course winds back up to the Speech House.

Vlad Venglar in contrast, has been training heavy recently clocking-up some huge weekly mileage. His training paid-off with a pleasing performance.

Mark Parker made a drastic switch to road shoes rather than off-roaders as the recent weather failed to produce any mud.

Mark's run was sharp and he had the edge on Nigel Tillott’s excellent race.

Alec Vincent finally produced a performance he’s wanted to for several months; he showed his neighbour Gary Duxbury a clean pair of heals although Gary’s run was impressive as he’s not really a longer distance athlete.

Suzanne Tharme laid down another run to be content with over the mystifying course. And Jon Mansfield hit his target with a top 20 finish. Mike Ward worked hard through the trees to place high in his 80+ age category (he may have been the oldest competitor). Terry Ballard had a tough morning after first six miles - missing the training he would have liked to have done, Terry "hobbled" to the finish so like Elaine, much kudos.