Newport Half-Marathon, 13th April 2025

On a busy weekend for racing, Tara Hipwood was down in her native South Wales to run in the Newport Half. She has kindly sent this report:

“Some of you may know that I took part in the Newport marathon this time last year, and thoroughly enjoyed it. So, I was looking forward to going back this year, albeit for just the one lap of the beautiful Gwent Levels this time. The start was noticeably busier this year, and with participation up to 10,000 people over the whole weekend (from 7000 last year), it’s great to see this lesser known event go from strength to strength.

Having been lucky enough to secure some PBs over shorter distances in the last few months, I was surreptitiously eyeballing a new half marathon PB as we set off on a beautiful sunny morning. Initially, I struggled to curb my enthusiasm, going faster than planned for the first 5k. Fortunately, I managed to reign things in to my planned pace for much of the rest of the race, enjoying the beautiful views of the farms and waterways of the levels in the sunshine, and saying hello to some passing llamas! I was even able to pick things up in the last few kms, as I picked my way through the tail end of the 10k runners and secured my PB.

The event was really well organised again this year, and I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone looking for relatively small, beautiful, and flat course over marathon or half marathon distance.”

Tara’s time, in position 510, was 1:54:01. Well done, Tara – absolutely smashed the 2 hour mark!