COMPANY OF RUNNERS cordially invite you to join us for the 2023 Stour Valley Half Marathon. Your challenge should you choose to accept it, is to self-navigate on a half marathon trail course (approximately 14 “Country” miles) following the highways, byways, trails and tracks around the Stour Valley using the Stour Valley Path and the Essex Way.
The course is a mixture of surfaces, so trail shoes are recommended. There will be checkpoints on the route, offering water, sweets and crisps, however we would encourage you to be as self-sufficient with fluid and fuel as possible. This year’s race will be cupless, so you need to bring your own cup or water bottles. Collapsible cups can be purchased from us at race registration at £5.
The cut-off is four hours, but we still expect you to be confident runners at this distance who can manage trail running in what can often be hot conditions. Ask friends who have completed this before-it is a notoriously difficult route. Participants should also be comfortable with following navigation instructions, GPS files or by reading maps. There are no marshals nor tape nor arrows to follow. The route follows most of the first loop of the Stour Valley Marathon route
This race makes excellent training for either the SVP100 or SVP50 ultra races which take place in August organised by our friend Matthew Hearne. Please also note that we hold the Stour Valley Marathon on the same day as the half. We will try to offer recce group runs in advance of the race.