Local running clubs were well represented at Sunday’s (March 24) Forest of Dean half marathon.

The Forest of Dean Athletics club were third in both the men’s and women’s team races.

Chepstow Harriers’ women were second in the team race and the men sixth.

The first local man home among the 1,887 field was FoDAC’s Marc Bennetto.

His personal best of 1hour 19mins 24secs was 8:43 behind winner Ben Livesey of Notts AC.

Teammates John Russell (1:25:30) and Richard Cronin (1:28:24) helped FoDAC’s men to third.

Georgie Parnell of Chepstow was the fastest local woman in 1:29:26, which was 8:35 behind the first woman home, Georgia Woods of Bournemouth.

Georgie helped the Harriers to second with Lisa Jeffrey in 1:39:38 and Esther Caldwell in 1:44:55.

The Forest team of Emma Evans, Joni Tingle and Bron Davies were some nine seconds behind in fourth.

Evans recorded a time of 1:31:52, which also gave her second in the female senior category, Tingle 1:45:00 and Davies 1:46:43.

The first Chepstow Harrier home was Stephen Caldwell in 1:27:33.

Paul Dowling of Newent Runners was third in the MV60 category in a time of 1:35:12. Andrew Callard in 1:38:47 and Adrian Fishpool in 1:42:13 helped Newent to 17th in the team event.

The first Newent woman to finish was Ruth Hayden-Cox in 1:41:21.

Julie Willis in 1:55:56 and Caz Brown in 2:00:54 brought the team home in 12th.

That was one place behind the Spirit of Monmouth team of Emma King, Lucy MacDonald and Abbie Buckley.

King finished in 1:43:31 with MacDonald in 1:45:27 and Buckley in 2:04:01.

The club’s men finished in 15th with Robert Nicholls in 1:24:31, Gareth Jones 1:29:24 and Mark Dunn in 1:48:43.

Monross Trailblazers’ men were 13th with Gavin Jones in 1:20:58, Gareth Bradbury in 1:33:13 and Mark Scri- vens in 1:44:39.

The club’s sole woman at the event, Vanessa Ball, finished in 1:46:59.

Monmouth Tri-Club was represented by Rebecca Harris, who finished in 2:01:41.

Although the race was run in perfect conditions, runners had the unusual backdrop of an illegal rave being cleared up in the Speech House woods near the start.

John Belcher, of the Rotary Club of Forest of Dean organisers, said: “It was a fantastic day – one of our biggest and best – all takings will go to charities both local and international.

“The Rotary Club hugely appreciates the support of all the volunteers who manned marshal points and water stations, handled radio communications, parked cars, and handed out medals and drinks at the finish.

“Without them this event would be quite impossible.”

Forest of Dean AC had 50 runners in total with 29 from Chepstow, 13 from Spirit of Monmouth and 10 from Newent.