NEW event the VALE OF YORK HALF-MARATHON sold out within days and had 865 starters from the aero club at Sherburn-in-Elmet.

It was the same day as the Great North Run, so picked up people who had not got entries for the Newcastle jamboree, and it also gathered runners from the winter Brass Monkey Half in York.

Wellness coach Angela Shepherd used it as a final threshold run for her Berlin Marathon training.

She found it well run by an experienced race organisation, and said: “The course is fantastic for a serious personal-best attempt – pretty much flat all the way round, except for going over a railway bridge on the way out and again on the way back.

“Almost all the roads were closed, which was great, and there were three water stations on the route. Being a very rural course, there wasn’t much in the way of crowd support or atmosphere, but it was a beautiful day to just take in the countryside and get into the zone.”

The winning chip-time of 69min 26sec by Leeds City’s Jason Cherriman showed the event’s potential. The quickest woman was Shona Fletcher (Richmond & Zetland) in 78:42.

Otley had three in the first eight, with Frank Beresford (72:13), Scott Harrington (74:02) and Mark Hall (75:58) all impressing.

RaceBest, the same event organisers, are helping the BRADFORD CITYRUNS event on October 26.

Currently, over 80 per cent of entrants have signed up for the Half Marathon, but growing numbers are entering the 5K and 10K runs on the same morning.

Running in aid of the Telegraph & Argus' charity, the Crocus Cancer Appeal, is possible for any of these events via race registration racebest.com/races/bradford-city-runs.

The Bradford Athletics Network’s ENDURANCE TRAINING programme kicked off this Monday for its 14-week course till Christmas. The Monday evening strength-and-conditioning sessions at Bradford Grammar School are paired with Wednesday trackwork at Keighley.

The Wednesday sessions number about 20 runners, including eight from the Airedale Athletics men’s team, all capable of 33 to 36 minutes for a 10k.

Details are at www.sportsshare.org/training-coaching/et.