MORE than 900 runners turned out for the Forest of Dean Autumn Half Marathon on Sunday, starting and finishing at the Speech House.

Entirely run on forest trails with no road crossings, this year’s Rotary-organised event also hosted the UK Athletics-sanctioned England v Wales Masters competition.

Lee Gratton of Rugeley Runners was first home in a sizzling 1.09.46, followed by Tomos Roberts of Meirionnydd RC in 1.13.20 and the Forest’s own Richard De-Camps, running for Gloucester AC, in 1.13.43.

Fastest woman was Ellie Monks of Southampton Athletic Club in 1.24.11, followed by Gemma Moore of Eryri Harriers (1.25.47) and Joanne Henderson of Denbigh Harriers (1.27.00).

MonRoss Trailblazer Rich Foster ran for Wales in the masters competition, finishing in 1.23.55 for seventh over-45 man, while club mates Kieron Brown stormed home in 1.25.27 and Gavin Jones in 1.29.04 to secure second in the team event.

Trailblazers’ Faye Johnson represented England in the masters competition and finished in 1.32.11 for fifth over-35 woman, while Tom Walmsley completed the race in a PB 1.33.35.

Spirit of Monmouth’s Katie Ironside was honoured to have been selected to run for Wales in the masters event and also had a storming run, finishing in 1.34.14 for third in her age category in the Welsh team.

Blazers’ Rob Potter was home in 1.37.48, followed by club mate Graham Bell in 1.56.52 .

Spirit duo Sian Fielding and Louise Hartree also ran the hilly and tough trail course, just missing out on sub two-hour times with the latter finishing in 2.02.45 and the former in 2.03.57.

MonRoss daughter and mum Rosie and Emma Davies also turned out for the half, the former crossing in 2.08.52 and the latter in 2.12.59.

Meanwhile Spirit’s Nick Sloper celebrated his birthday on Saturday at the Trail Escape Bristol Bath Marathon, after dropping his car off at 6.15am by the finish line before being bussed back for a chilly start in Bristol.

The route started off on relatively flat and gentle loop across a mixture of tarmac and public footpaths around the South Gloucestershire countryside before catching up with the 25km runners and walkers, who had a later start time, as runners moved onto the Dram Way to Bath.

A gradually uphill section along the old railway led on to the Cotswold AONB, which was followed by the hills of Bath and some steep up and down sections on some challenging stone paths for the next five miles, which on very weary legs was a massive physical and mental challenge to make it to the finish.

And Nick was totally wiped out by the time he reached the line, crossing in 5.14.46 for 22nd in his category.

Elsewhere, David Mather headed to London with several old university friends to race the Ealing Half Marathon, an annual meet up for the group and David's fourth time running the race, which started outside Lammas Park before taking in parts of Central Ealing, Montpelier, Pitshanger, West Ealing, Hanwell and St Stephen’s and back to Walpole Park.

David had an enjoyable run and finished in 1.55.23.