Runners on their marks for half marathon

Organised by UKRunChat, the sporting weekend kicks off on Saturday morning with the Shropshire Primary Schools Challenge, which will see hundreds of young runners from across the region complete their own half marathon challenge.

Along with the Half Marathon, which takes place on Sunday, there will be a fantastic celebration of running in the town.

Organisers are promising that this year will be the biggest and best event yet and organisers UK Run Events, powered by UKRunChat and Breathe Unity, are looking forward to welcoming some 3,000 runners over the course of the two days. Among these, there will be a strong contingent from 110 running clubs including Shropshire Shufflers, Lawley Running Club, Wrekin Road Runners, Telford Harriers, Oswestry Olympians, Shrewsbury AC, Whitchurch Whippets, Bridgnorth Running Club, Telford AC and UKRunChat, plus 52 runners from Shrewsbury School.

Shrewsbury Half Marathon sees the runners tackle a 13.1-mile route on closed roads through the town centre and out into the surrounding countryside.

The race starts and finishes at Shropshire County Showground, site of the race village, before heading out along the river in the Quarry, through the historic town centre, past hundreds of listed buildings and up the Wyle Cop, the UK’s longest row of uninterrupted independent shops. The second half of the race takes them out in to the countryside to the north of the town.

The 2017 Shrewsbury Half Marathon was won by David Webb (Telford AC) in 1:08:00 and Belle Ward in 1:31:09.

Shropshire County Showground will also be the venue for the highly anticipated Shropshire Primary Schools Challenge on Saturday (16).

Approximately 900 children from 21 schools will complete the final 1.1 miles of their own cumulative half marathon which they have been working towards at school over the last few weeks and months.

The young runners, aged four to 11, will get the full race experience including race bibs, a marshalled route, music and a start and finish line gantry, allowing them to enjoy the thrill of a big sporting event.

Friends, family and spectators are all welcome on the morning to cheer on the youngsters and help get race weekend off to a thrilling start.

Race director Joe Williams said: “We are excited that the countdown is now on for the 2018 Shrewsbury Half Marathon and Shropshire Primary Schools Challenge. The whole weekend promises to be an inspiring two days for runners of all ages and abilities and we can’t wait to welcome everyone to their races. We have the support of some amazing sponsors and partners, a wonderful team of volunteers and plenty of fantastic prizes up for grabs, so it really will be a thrilling couple of days. We wish the very best of luck to all runners as they #RunShrewsbury.”