Reading Half Marathon Route Changes

If you're running the Reading half marathon in a few weeks then you won't be passing underneath one of Reading's famous landmarks...

It's because stones have started falling from Abbey Gateway at the 6 mile point.

Scaffolding's been put up to fix the problem, which means the cars leading the race won't be able to fit through.

The 14,000 runners may also find it a squeeze.

The new route diverts off Abbey Street down Abbey Square past Abbey Baptist Church. The runners will come back out onto Kings Road where they'll be a short section of two-way running. They'll then turn right into Market Place and High Street and through the Friar Street pedestrian area infront of the Old Town Hall before rejoining the route on Friar Street.

But Race Director Chris Sumner says the new route is actually better than before:

"We've taken some time to design the course which is as representative to Reading as we could. This year with the Blade being finished it would be such a shame to miss out on running past such an amazing landmark. We're quite pleased we can still run past the Blade and it also happens to be the 10km mark so we'll have a clock there and time points so people can get their times as they run past it."

Find out more info here