Miners Half Marathon, 15^th June 2008

The Miners Half Marathon, (formally the Norton/Radstock Half Marathon) 10k & Fun Run race takes place in the heart of the Old Somerset Coalfields and offers a mixture of town and country running. And 4 steep hills! Wells City Harriers were well represented in the Half Marathon, and took a fair haul of prizes. The weather was glorious, but thankfully not as blisteringly hot as in some previous years, for the 159 finishers.

Following prizes in the Wessex Ridgeway and the Cow Pat Canter, ever-improving Clare Prosser came in to win First Lady and 30^th overall, in 1:34:50, a full 2 minutes ahead of her nearest rival. She maintained the tradition as our Jenny Moore won this award last year. Next was Bob Powell (45^th, 1:40:08), narrowly ahead of John Reynolds (50^th, 1:41:01) John being a massive 23 minutes faster than last year. Another close battle saw Carol Buckland (78^th, 1:47:54) closely pipping Sue Cook (81^st, 1:47:59) to the post. Jane Whittaker was 1^st Lady Vet 50 (105^th, 1:52:41). Simon Jones (117^th, 1:56:32) completed the set, with all under 2 hours. The Ladies also took home the prize for Second Ladies Team, for Clare, Carol and Sue.

Sadly, this well run, local event is under threat from spiralling costs to cover more bureaucracy and regulation. This would be a tremendous shame as a total of 321 people entered the events, and showed how much it is valued.