Bath Half Marathon
Encyclopedia
Road running
Road running is the sport of running on a measured course over an established road . These events would be classified as long distance according to athletics terminology, with distances typically ranging from 5 kilometers to 42.2 kilometers in the marathon. They may involve large numbers of runners...
half marathon
Half marathon
A half marathon is a road running event of . It is half the distance of a marathon and usually run on roads. Participation in half marathons has grown steadily recently. One of the main reasons for this is that it is a challenging distance, but does not require the same level of training that a...
held in Bath, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The has been held every year since 1981, normally on the second or third Sunday in March. It was up the year after the first London Marathon in 1980, it has remained a popular race for runners preparing for the London Marathon
London Marathon
The London Marathon is one of the biggest running events in the world, and one of the five top world marathons that make up the World Marathon Majors competition, which has a $1 million prize purse. It has been held each spring in London since 1981. The race is currently sponsored by Virgin Money,...
.
Raising over £1.4 million pounds for a wide variety of local, regional, national & international charities in 2010 the Bath Half Marathon is one of the largest annual charity fundraising events in the southwest region.
The Bath Half is a fast flat course, straddling both sides of the River Avon. The race starts and finishes in Great Pulteney Street
Great Pulteney Street
Great Pulteney Street is a grand thoroughfare that connects Bathwick on the east of the River Avon with the City of Bath, England via the Robert Adam designed Pulteney Bridge...
- with a roadway spanning 46 feet (14 m) - one of the widest Georgian boulevards in Europe. The first mile is gently downhill down Pulteney Road to Churchill Bridge, then following two identical laps from Churchill Bridge, rising up past Green Park station
Bath Green Park railway station
Green Park railway station is a former railway station in Bath, Somerset, England. For some of its life, it was known as Bath Queen Square.-Architecture and opening:...
, round Queen Square
Queen Square (Bath)
Queen Square is a square of Georgian houses in the city of Bath, England.Queen Square was the first speculative development by the architect John Wood, the Elder. Wood lived in a house on the square. Numbers 21-27 make up the north side...
, then down Charlotte Street and westbound out of the city centre along the A4 road (Upper Bristol Road and Newbridge Road) to Newbridge
Newbridge, Bath
Newbridge is a largely residential electoral ward within Bath, England. Informally, Newbridge refers to the area of Bath that roughly corresponds to the ward boundaries....
and crossing the 'New Bridge' at the 'Twerton Fork' at the beginning of the dual carriageway. From here the race heads back eastbound on the A36 road
A36 road
The A36 is a trunk road and primary route in England that links the port city of Southampton to the city of Bath. At Bath, the A36 connects with the A4 road to Bristol, thus enabling a road link between the major ports of Southampton and Bristol. Originally, the A36 continued onto Avonmouth, but...
back towards the city centre, along Lower Bristol Road, before crossing over Churchill Bridge and up Green Park again for the beginning of the second lap. At the end of the second lap the runners pass across Churchill Bridge, finally rising up Pulteney Road to the finish back in Great Pulteney Street.
The course route is unchanged since minor modifications in 2006, the current course being close to the original course used in early years of the race. It was remeasured in 2006 by IAAF official course measurer Hugh Jones, describing the course as 'officially flat, with three undulations'. The assembly area for the race is the Bath Recreation Ground.
Recent race results
Current course records:- 2007 Tewodros Shiferaw (Kenya) 1:02:09 Male.
- 2007 Liz Yelling (Bedford UK) 1:09.27 Female.
The 2009 Bath Half Marathon was held on Sunday 15 March 2009 with 10,700 finishers (15,000 entries), won by Simon Tonui (Kenya) in 1:03:09 and Joyce Kandia (Kenya) in 1:11:49
The 2008 Bath Half Marathon was held on Sunday 16 March with 10,054 finishers (15,000 entries), won by Raymond Tonui (Kenya) in 1:05:21 and Roman Gebresse (Kenya) in 01:13:09. The 2008 Bath Half Marathon was the 3rd largest half marathon in the UK, after the Great North Run and Reading Half Marathon
The 2007 Bath half marathon was held on Sunday 25 March 2007 with 8,165 finishers (12,500 entries), won by Tewodros Shiferaw (Kenya) 1:02:09 and Liz Yelling (Bedford) 1:09.27 — both in new course record times, Liz Yelling breaking a 13-year old record set by Andrea Wallace (Torbay) in 1993 (1:09.39)
The 2006 Bath Half Marathon was held on Sunday 19 March with 6,000 finishers (10,000 entries), won by Simon Kasimili of Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
in 1:04:08.