CITY of Salisbury’s Stuart Holloway took an encouraging step forward in his preparations for a good marathon when he ran the Brighton race over half the distance.

Among 7,500 starters on a road course known to be fast, he was always well up towards the front and was one of the top two dozen finishers with a time of 74min 57sec, less than three minutes down on his best ever.

Undeterred by the event title, four hardy Salisbury athletes survived the tough course at the Pewsey Terminator half marathon. Deep mud and a very steep climb had an effect on the group’s times. David Osment 1hour 44min 47sec, Ruth Thom 2.6:16, Liz Roberts 2.49:57 and Kathryn Waterworth 2.59:30.

John and Christine Gorham were at Portsmouth for the coastal half marathon on more conventional terrain and they completed the 13miler in 2.02:22.

Over the shorter distances, Mike White produced another good 10k performance, this time at Winchester where he clocked 43min 25sec. A very much slower course confronted Kathryn Dreyer at the Bath Skyline event where she finished in 82.54, while at the Poole 5k Steve Lomas was timed at 24min 33secs.