Reading Half Marathon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Reading Half Marathon climbing Russell Street in West Reading in 2004

In 2005, Julius Kimtai chases down Malack Olemengera and a wheelchair athlete.

The Reading Half Marathon is a half marathon road running event held on the streets of the English town of Reading. The race is normally held on a Sunday in March or early April of each year. The race is open to everyone from fun runner to elite athletes, and was one of the first town races to include wheelchair athletes. In 2005 the race had 12,000 registered entrants, and the 2006 race had 13,500 places available. The race was first run on the 13 March 1983.

1 Course
2 Dates
3 Records
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Course

The Reading Half Marathon has had several courses over its life. The current course starts in GreenPark Business Park and proceeds north to the town centre via a loop of University of Reading's Whiteknights Campus. It then loops around the town centre and West Reading before heading back south to a finish at the Madejski Stadium adjacent to GreenPark.^[1]

[edit] Dates

The race has been, or is planned to be, held on the following dates:

2008 - March 2
2007 - March 25
2006 - April 9
2005 - March 20
2004 - March 7
2003 - March 9
2002 - March 10
2001 - Not run due to that year's outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease
2000 - March 12
...
1983 - March 13

[edit] Records

The current male course record is 61 minutes 19 seconds, by Patrick Makau in 2008. The female record is 69 mins 35 seconds, set by Liz Yelling in 2008. The male wheelchair record is 45 minutes 59 seconds, set by David Weir in 2006, while the female wheelchair record is 66 minutes 37 seconds, set by Shelly Woods in 2004.^[2]^[3]