On Sunday, Shrewsbury’s Half Marathon debuted a new route, and Newport & District Running Club were represented by four runners – two taking on the 13.1 mile Half Marathon, and two taking on the 13.1 kilometre Metric Half Marathon, the latter being one of the more unusual distances that can be raced on!
New for 2023, the Half Marathon route made extensive use of the town centre and surrounding areas, including the Quarry, Kingsland and Frankwell, with river crossings at the English and Welsh bridges. With the race HQ (including start and finish) for both races at the Showground, the Metric Half utilised some of the same route as the Half Marathon, but didn’t feature as many loops around the town centre, due to the shorter race distance.
For the Half Marathon, David Evans was first back for Newport, taking 25th place overall, in a time of 1 hour, 53 minutes 7 seconds. He was followed by Simon Taylor, who took 611th place in 2:24:31. In the Metric Half, Helen Mason finished in 91st position with a time of 1:18:17, and she was joined in that race by Tracy Hartridge, who was 174th in 1:28:06.
Newport & District Running Club 