A popular fixture on the local road racing scene, the Stafford Half Marathon returned last weekend, with a slightly different route than usual due to the flooding around town.
Despite the threat of rain, the sun came out as the race started, and runners made the usual anti-clockwise tour of Staffordshire’s county town, taking in areas such as Highfields, Weeping Cross (via the big climb at Radford Bank) and Baswich, before taking on the long slog of the ring road to the north-east of town, before returning to the town centre finish via the Eccleshall road and the Isabel Trail.
Around 2,000 runners entered this year, and Newport’s first finisher this year was David Clarke, who finished 24th overall in a time of 1 hour, 20 minutes, 57 seconds.
Phil Dolding was 208th in 1:35:08, just ahead of James Cairns, who finished 212nd in 1:35:28, and Jon Pierce, who took 219th position with a new PB of 1:35:33, beating his time from last year by 10 minutes.
Alex Cochrane, in 284th, was another to get a PB, his time of 1:38:07 beating his target of 1 hour 40, and he was followed by Rich Owen, who ran a time of 1:40:41 in 364th position. Verity Dodd was next, her time of 1:50:51 earning her 667th place, whilst David Evans finished 757th in 1:54:52.
Kay Wilkinson-Smith took 792nd place in a time of 1:55:27, whilst Phil Cross was 882nd in 1:58:07. John Metzger ran a time of 2:03:04 to finish 1,072nd, and was closely followed by Rodney Jones, who was 1,124th in 2:04:53.
Jo Lutner took 1,306th place with her time of 2:11:36, whilst Selwyn Plant placed 1,336th in a time of 2:12:58. Ralph Humphries finished 1,555th in 2:23:52, closely followed by Wendy Tonge, who was 1,565th with a time of 2:24:48.
Siobhan Martin took 1,677th position in 2:33:11, whilst Toni Ireland was 1,725th, with a time of 2:38:43.
