Stroud Beer Race 2025

Last week, myself and three other members of the running club ran Stroud Beer Race. Organised by Stroud & District AC, it is a 7.2 mile midweek evening road race on the outskirts of the town. Stroud Beer Race is part of the Gloucestershire AAA race series, like the Bourton mile. Three of us from the club are taking part in the series and the other runner just wanted to run it! Unfortunately, the race clashed with the Cleeve Cloud Cuckoo five mile race, which is part of the club’s off-road race series, so a lot of club members, including my husband, ran that one.

I got a lift over to Stroud from a lady from the club who is a very fast runner. It was her first time running the race too. Her conclusion afterwards was that she would rather have run Cleeve Cloud Cuckoo!

The race HQ and start was at The Old Lodge pub in Minchinhampton. The email said it had ‘limited’ parking, but it seemed you could park pretty much the whole way along the road leading to the pub. There was a small number of portable toilets on site and the queues never got big. Unusually, race numbers had been posted out in advance. The pub is on Minchinhampton Common and there were cows grazing there. We were warned they could wander onto the road and should obviously be given a wide berth! Luckily, that didn’t happen.

I wasn’t sure how long it would take me to run 7.2 miles. I’d heard the route was ‘undulating’ and seen that the top three women in my age category last year had run it in about 55 minutes, so that was the sort of time I was hoping for.

The race started by running away from the pub (probably 200 or 300 metres) onto the ‘main’ road. Then it was three laps. The route skirted the common, then went downhill quite sharply. We turned left by another pub and started climbing. And we climbed and we climbed and we climbed.

By the other pub, I heard someone shout my name. My name is on my vest, so it’s not completely unexpected for someone to shout me. It was only after I’d run past that I realised it was my eldest come out to support me! He had said he would go along, but I wasn’t sure if he would or where he would be.

The climb was mainly gradual, but it was very long and exhausting. If it’s a hilly off-road race, I feel like I can walk if it gets too tough. But this was ‘just’ a road race and I felt like I needed to suffer. Because it’s a three lap course, the sight of the 5 and 6 mile markers when we’d only just started running was very unwelcome!

Technically, the roads were open, but we didn’t see any cars. I’m pleased to say that bone conducting headphones were allowed, but wasn’t pleased that my carefully assembled playlist from Birmingham half marathon was in shuffle mode! The road surface was really good, considering it was country roads. There was one water stop about halfway round the lap. Of course, when the email said there was one water station, I hadn’t really appreciated that we would run past it three times, so I was carrying my own drink with me. I think I was the only person who was. It saved me a few seconds of stopping at any rate.

As the route nears the end of the lap, it gets back onto the main road and it’s STILL climbing. And then the next lap starts. And it’s just as tough as the first one, if not tougher.

My son had moved to closer to the start of the lap and I spotted him in the distance this time. He was stood with a marshal and a photographer.

The marshal shouted to me: “Go on, Sarah, he’s told me all about you. 22:08 – great running!”

That was three miles, so 22:08 did seem pretty good and I felt I was on target for my 55 minutes. The downhill was enjoyable, but then I was back to climbing again. It was a humid evening and it was exhausting.

For me, a 10k seems to go by in the blink of an eye. It’s hard when I’m running it, but I enjoy it and I recover very quickly. That extra mile seemed to make such a difference. I’m still trying to run at 10k/ five mile pace, which is pretty much my 5k pace too. I’m not slowing down to half marathon pace just for an extra mile.

The laps felt long, but eventually I was on the final one. I saw my son in the same place again and I kept running. As I approached the water stop for the final time, I was overtaken by two women. One was clearly a lot younger than me, but I suspected the other one was in my age category. I couldn’t catch her. I had nothing left.

Back on the main road, it felt like a very long way to the turn back towards the pub for the finish line. Then that road to the finish line, which I hadn’t even noticed at the start, felt very long. I spotted my son in the distance long before we turned. He was waiting about halfway along the road to the finish line and ran with me to the end in his jeans, Doc Martens and coat. I was very pleased to have him there!

All finishers got a wooden medal and a small amount of beer in a paper cup, which I gave to my son.

My finish time was 54:23, which would have won me the age category last year. This year, it put me in third. The category for this race was 50-59, although for the Gloucestershire series we will be in our proper age categories ie 50-54 for me. I know the woman who came first is actually in the 55-59 category, but the woman who overtook me was in my category. She beat me by just six seconds, but I really couldn’t catch her.

Stroud Beer Race is a tough race. The ‘undulations’ are exhausting. I think I was also feeling a lack of energy because it was a 7pm start and it’s hard to know what to eat before an evening race. I had eaten, but I hadn’t eaten a full meal. I’m in no hurry to run Stroud Beer Race again.