First Telford town half marathon to go ahead in 2016

Kickass Endurance is in the process of organising the 13-mile race following their successful endurance challenges over the past three years.

"We really wanted to arrange a half marathon for a few reasons," said ex-soldier Ryan Talbot, who co-runs the events alongside his father Tony Talbot and Matt Dickenson, who are both in the fire service.

"We are passionate about getting local residents active, we want to showcase how well-developed Telford has become and we also recognise the benefits for local businesses in the area.

"As a relatively new company, we will need as much help as we can get and it will be a great opportunity for the community to all get together and produce something we can all be proud of."

A spokeswoman for Telford & Wrekin Council confirmed that the half marathon will be held in July 2016, joining those in Ironbridge and Shrewsbury on the Shropshire distance-running calendar.

The trio, from Telford, formed Kickass Endurance in 2012, and currently organise a number of obstacle courses and other races throughout the year, charging lower entry fees than many similar challenges to raise funds for charities close to their hearts.

"We all had a real keen interest in doing these sorts of events," said Ryan.

"We felt we could bring something new to the market at a much lower cost."

Their next challenges, both at Weston Park, are an obstacle course on November 1, where participants can expect to battle through cargo nets, rope climbs and 12-foot walls, followed by a 10k run on December 6.

The group also hosts a 10k mud run trough Buildwas, and the Kick Butts obstacle course for runners aged eight-15.

Ryan said: "We are helped hugely by the support of our friends and family, many of whom have similar backgrounds, to set up events.

"We build and install many of the obstacles ourselves and spend many many hours on the run up to the events setting everything up."

"The success of the events has been all down to the competitors, we have an absolutely brilliant bunch of loyal followers with many of our runners having done every event since we first began."

Ryan, who served on the front line in Afghanistan and Iraq, and is now based in Surrey, said the group support fire service and ex-forces charities due to their own backgrounds.

"We are hugely in support of The Fire Fighters Charity with two of three directors currently in the service," he said.

They also support Help For Heroes, which Ryan described as "very close to my heart having lost a huge number of close friends in Afghanistan," and have previously donated to the Georgia Williams Trust.