Run Cheltenham (Cheltenham half marathon) 2025

My husband, daughter, sister, brother-in-law and I recently ran the Cheltenham half marathon – or Run Cheltenham as it is called these days. It was my 11th time running the race and, for me, it was the best yet.

Cheltenham half marathon isn’t part of any race series, but it is always a big one for us as it’s our local race. The support on the course is really good and there’s always lots of people we know running it too.

Organisers have taken previous complaints on board – about the racecourse being boring (was removed from the course last year), about the lack of water stations (I think there were six this year!) and about the heat (the race was moved to the third weekend in September this year, rather than the first). This year, the 10k race started at 8:20am, with the half marathon starting at 9. In the past, the 10k has started after the half marathon, which has caused congestion on parts of the course.

For the first time ever, runners had the option to collect their numbers from the racecourse the day before. Otherwise, they could pay £2.50 delivery and have them posted. We chose to collect ours and it ran very smoothly.

This year, due to ongoing roadworks on Evesham Road next to the racecourse (it has been closed for more than three months), parking was only available via the Southam Lane entrance. Last year, we were stuck in the car park for an hour trying to get out at the end and didn’t fancy going through that again. So my son drove us and dropped us off. Drop-off was available via the main entrance to the racecourse and the traffic was flowing freely.

We arrived at 8am. For the first time ever – because we didn’t have a car with us and because it was much colder than usual, we used the bag drop. Bags were collected by Scouts and it was all very efficient.

As we drove, we saw traffic was already gridlocked two miles from the racecourse at 7:45am. I believe it was the traffic issues which delayed the start slightly and meant some 10k runners ran with the half marathon runners.

Annoyingly, organisers still insisted on doing a noisy and cheerful warm-up when the race should already have started.

The start line was on the front car park of the racecourse, with runners set off pen by pen. My husband, brother-in-law and I were in the 1:30 to 1:45 pen, my sister was in the 1:45 to 2 pen and my daughter was in the 2:15 to 2:30 pen. My aim for Run Cheltenham 2025 was a minimum of a course PB and hopefully a half marathon PB. I knew I needed to run at about 7:45 min/ mile to achieve this. Last year I got a half marathon PB at Cheltenham of 1`:46:42. I then beat that at Stroud, Dymock (which is hilly) and Birmingham – 1:41:55.

My husband was also aiming to run a PB. He said he was going to run his own race, which was fine by me. But somehow the three of us took off together. I was worried it would be a bit fast for my brother-in-law, who hasn’t done as much running lately. As soon as we got out of the racecourse gate, the support was brilliant. I think I saw three people I knew within the first minute!

We ran down New Barn Lane and back up again and we’d run a mile. The three of us were still together.

Cheltenham used to be quite a flat course. Removing the racecourse means it is now slightly less flat. There are a few ups and downs, but they’re generally short and quite gentle.

My husband and brother-in-law started to pull away as we ran through Prestbury towards the town centre. But then I overtook my brother-in-law and closed the gap on my husband. At times I was literally right behind him and I didn’t know if he knew I was there. At this point I was running a 7:38 pace. Maintaining that for 13.1 miles doesn’t give you the ability to speak to your husband and let him know you’re right behind him!

The support on The Promenade and Montpellier in the town centre was fantastic. There are three parts of the course where you pass runners going in the opposite direction – the lap of The Park (an area of the town, not an actual park), then the lap of Hatherley and finally going back down The Promenade. I looked out for my daughter on the lap of The Park, but realised we were too far ahead of where she would be. Then I looked out for her as we headed down The Promenade and realised she would be further on than that.

I was so intent on looking for her that it was a pleasant surprise to discover I’d already run eight miles. The weather was great – cool and cloudy – and I was feeling fine. There was a really nice Sue Ryder support area in the town centre. There was also more entertainment on the course than ever before – choirs, DJs and samba bands. It was all very much appreciated! I imagine thanks must go to Safran, which sponsored the event, for that.

There were loads of club members out supporting. They all had their club hoodies on, so they were easy to spot. They shouted my name, then immediately shouted the name of my husband’s business partner, so I was aware he was right on my shoulder. Eventually he and a fast lady from our club overtook me. I saw her quickly get ahead of my husband, but he and his business partner stayed just in front of me.

We ran along the Honeybourne Line and emerged by the Prince of Wales Stadium. This is about half a mile from the racecourse, but we still had three miles to run. There was A LOT of weaving around Pittville. This mainly consisted of going down hills, going along a bit, then going back up again.

By this time, the sun was coming out, but it still wasn’t hot. I was feeling very comfortable with my running. I closed the gap on my husband to the point when spectators assumed we were running together. I sped up as we approached the racecourse, overtook my husband and pretty much flew through the racecourse to the finish line. The finish line was 600 metres inside the racecourse, with a gentle downhill all the way. My watch tells me I did the last 0.1 miles in 5:42 min/ mile pace.

My husband overtook me on the line, but I’d pushed him to a two second half marathon PB. And I’d got a 44 second PB – 1:41:11! I couldn’t have been happier with that. I was 73rd female out of 1,581 and 6th in my age category out of 165.

My brother-in-law finished in 1:45, my sister in 1:50 (a big PB) and my daughter in 2:21 (an even bigger PB!). Run Cheltenham 2025 was a fantastic day.