Dymock half marathon 2025

My husband and I, along with several members of our running club, recently ran the Dymock half marathon. Dymock is a village on the Gloucestershire/ Herefordshire border, halfway between Newent and Ledbury. The race is on our club’s road race series.

We’d run Dymock half marathon last year and I found it tough, because it’s pretty hilly. But now I’ve run properly hilly, off-road races, so I thought I might find it easier this year. My aim for this year was to beat my time from last year (1:51:30), which I was fairly confident I would be able to do.

Going into the race, my husband had a cold and wasn’t feeling great. He was in two minds about whether to run it at all. I’d been struggling with my legs a bit. I had five races in May (six if you count the club’s handicap race) and they take their toll. The distances might be short, but I run as hard as I can and the recovery from a five mile race, for example, is harder than from a 13 mile training run.

My memories of Dymock half marathon from last year were of a lovely, relaxing community event. Somehow it didn’t feel as much like that this year! The race, based at Dymock Cricket Club, started at 9am. We’d planned to set off at 7:30am, which would have got us there just after 8. But my husband decided to get a drive thru coffee, which should have taken one minute early on a Sunday morning, but it took 10 minutes. We arrived at the cricket club at 8:20am to a huge registration queue.

Registration was supposed to close at 8:30, but it can’t have closed until nearly 9. The queue was big, slow and getting bigger all the time. There was also a five mile race and the queues weren’t separate until the last minute. Luckily, the toilet queues were pretty good. There were toilets inside the clubhouse and portable toilets outside, including the all-important urinals, which help to keep the queues down.

At 8:50am, it was announced that bone conducting headphones weren’t allowed, although we didn’t even hear the initial announcement! That is despite an email sent only the previous day saying they were allowed. At 8:55, it was announced the race would start five minutes late, due to the toilet queues. so my husband took our headphones back to the car. The five mile runners lined up close to the gate and the half marathon runners lined up in a different position on the field. We had to do a small lap of the field before going out the gate.

The race had a chip timed finish, but a gun time start. Sort of. At 9:08am, there was a countdown – 3, 2, 1. Then an actual cannon was supposed to fire. Like in The Hunger Games. But it didn’t fire. People started to run. Surely they should wait for the cannon? Surely the organisers would call a false start? Sod it! I was running. What a shambles.

As we ran up the road, a minute and a half after starting, the cannon fired!

My memory served me correctly. Dymock half marathon really is a very uphill race.

The weather had started out sunny, but it soon clouded over. There was even a bit of rain. Then the sun came out again and went away again. It was quite windy. But there was some shade. It was pretty good conditions for the end of May.

I soon left my husband behind. I found myself once more running with my friend who helped me to a 10k PB and a home parkrun PB. He runs such a consistent pace, while I run fast on the flat bits and downhills, then struggle on the hills. But somehow I got ahead of him and didn’t see him again until six miles.

In the meantime, we kept climbing. At 2.5 miles, the half marathon runners ran across a bridge over the M50 motorway, while the five mile runners went in the other direction. I realised that, even though the course was every bit as uphill as I’d remembered, I wasn’t finding it as hard. We were approaching five miles before I was aware of my legs, breathing and generally being tired of hills!

There were four water stations (I think!). I had water at six miles and nine miles, but didn’t bother with the others. I had my usual Lucozde and Bloks with me.

There was a particularly big climb at about six miles. I remembered it from last time and I remembered the relief of the water. My friend came up behind me “Come on Sarah, this is the hardest bit”. Thank goodness for that! The water was at the top of the hill and the combination of the water and finally being on the flat/ downhill was such a relief.

My friend and I stuck together for the next four or five miles. We ran through the villages of Kempley and Much Marcle. Locally, they’re famous for their daffodils. Nationally and internationally, they’re famous for their connection with Fred West.

The second half of the race was a lot more downhill than uphill, but there were still a few small climbs in there. I had the random thought ‘Only 10k to go!’, which is not a great thought when the entire race is 21k, so you’re only just over halfway.

My pace was looking really good and I could see I was on for a definite course PB. If nothing went wrong, it was going to be a very good course PB.

There were marshals out on the course, but maybe not quite as many as were needed. At one point, at around 10 miles, there was a fork in the road, with no signs and no marshals. My friend and I were running close to four other men. There was a big gap in front of us. We didn’t know which way to go! Luckily I spotted other runners in the distance and they were on the flatter route.

At about 11 miles, going up yet another hill, I felt able to pull away from my friend. So I kept going.

We’d been told we couldn’t wear headphones because the roads weren’t closed. I saw one car at two miles, one at nine miles and one at 11 miles. Then we joined the ‘main’ road for less than half a mile at the very end. And there were plenty of marshals there.

It was such a relief to be back in Dymock and on the main road, heading downhill to the finish. Although there was just one more tiny climb at the end. I crossed the line in 1:44:55 – a six and a half minute course PB! It was actually my third fastest half marathon time ever – after Great Birmingham Run three weeks previously and Stroud half marathon last year. I was pleased to be part of the winning club team.

I was just starting to worry about my husband, when he finished about seven minutes behind me. He hadn’t been felling well and had walked up some of the hills. But 1:51 for a hilly half marathon when you’re ill is very good!