Bourton half marathon 2026

I recently ran the Bourton half marathon for the second time. Organised by Bourton Road Runners, the race starts and finishes in the popular Cotswold village of Bourton-on-the-Water in Gloucestershire. It is part of the Gloucestershire AAA road race series and also the half marathon county championship.

The Bourton half marathon used to be called the ‘Bourton hilly half’, but they dropped that name last year. No doubt it put people off running it. People who like running hills like trails, not hilly road races. Stupidly, I hadn’t revisited my blogpost about the race last year and somehow I’d forgotten just how hilly it was. But maybe ignorance was bliss.

The race is based at Greystones Farm, which is owned by Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust and close to the centre of the village. I got a lift there with my friend and we parked in a (rather expensive) car park more or less opposite the entrance. Registration was in one building, where they served coffee and cake afterwards and bag drop was in another building, just across the yard. Bag drop was unsecured, but there were only just over 100 runners, most of whom are used to seeing each other at every local race. The toilets were the actual Greystones Farm toilets, which were a massive improvement on portaloos. The men’s toilet had a much bigger queue than the ladies’!

The start line was a few minutes’ walk from the farm. We all walked down as a group and, on arrival, had literally two minutes to the start of the race. I lined up in about the right place on the narrow country lane and waited for the horn. Lush Timing was doing the timing. They do most of the local races and always start very promptly.

And we were off! Straight down a country lane and very briefly through Bourton and over one of its iconic bridges. It really is such a beautiful place. It’s no wonder it’s so popular with tourists. And then we were out of the village and onto the first hill!

Bourton half marathon consists of two very big hills with a few smaller hills in between. I didn’t like to walk within a mile of starting the race, but that’s exactly what I ended up doing. I’m not very good at hills. I start them too fast, thinking the momentum will drive me up. Then get absolutely exhausted and have no choice but to walk until my heartrate and breathing settle a bit.

Eventually I made it to the top, then was able to start running a bit more steadily and strongly. There was a nice bit of downhill, which was much appreciated. Although I knew that what went down had to go back up…

We were running on open roads, but there was very little traffic. Although there was one car which went flying past us way too fast. Another drove very slowly with its hazards flashing and another drove slowly, with the passenger cheering us all. That was far nicer!

We were allowed bone conducting headphones, which was a relief as it is quite a boring course. The support is nil, there were very few runners and it is nearly all open country lanes. I ran for a while in a small pack with two other women, which was nice. I was in awe of one of them who was able to slow her pace for the hills, so she could just keep running. Inevitably, I overtook her at the start, then she overtook me as I walked.

There was water at about 4.5 miles and 8.5 miles in paper cups. As ever, I was carrying my own water and electrolytes anyway, but I slurped some as best I could and threw a bit on myself. There were a few marshals out on the course at any junctions. There were also marshals on bikes, who cycled up and down the runners to check everyone was OK and there was a medical point at about 10k.

The weather was chilly and cloudy. There were a few spots of rain early on and the sun almost came out at one point. It was actually perfect running conditions.

I ran up and down the smaller hills. Then, at about seven miles, we were climbing again. The lady with the impressive hill pacing asked me if this was the actual big hill and I said I had no idea! It turns out that it was. It went on for about a mile and it was energy sapping and soul destroying.

And then we had a big downhill, which was great fun. At one point it was so steep that I had to actually hold myself back for fear of going flying.

At around 10 or 11 miles, we were on a road which looked like it should be a main road, because it had two lanes rather than one. This is what I remember from last year. The two ladies had gone ahead of me and there I was, running completely on my own on this open road. It was very boring.

And then I was on Rissington Road – the main road running back into Bourton. The marshal said: “Stay on the path and run all the way into Bourton”. I liked the sound of that! I ran past the layby where we gather for the start of the Bourton mile. Which meant I could get to the centre of Bourton in just six minutes 20. If I hadn’t already run 12 very challenging miles.

Actually, we stayed on the path, but we didn’t follow it all the way to the centre of Bourton. We veered off into a housing estate. There were a lot of twists and turns and I had no idea where I was, so thank goodness for marshals. Although very close to the end, there was a fork in the path, with no marshal and I didn’t know where to go. I had to wait for the next runner to ask him! At last, we passed the 13 mile sign and we were through the gate and over the finish line. The other runner kindly made sure I crossed the finish line before him, as I was ahead before I had to stop.

I finished in 1:47:55, which was just over a minute faster than I ran it last year. I’m pleased to say, I maintained my half marathon county champion status. Of five of us who ran from our club, four were county champions for our age groups and the other one got county silver.

It was a challenging, but satisfactory morning of running!