I'M sure that some runners would have preferred the organisers not to have chosen one of the hottest days of the year, but despite the weather, the Frome Half Marathon was by common agreement another terrific event.
You may not be surprised to hear I'm not a runner, but I could tell from the smiles of those who were. It was made particularly memorable this year by the presence of paralympic swimming medallist Stephanie Millward, of Combe Down, who started the event from our somewhat shaky podium while I held her Olympic torch. When I say medallist, I somewhat underestimate her achievement, because in fact she had no fewer than five of the incredibly heavy Olympic medals hanging round her neck. No wonder she was happy to let youngsters try them on for size – it probably came as a relief.
Congratulations to the organisers for a superbly organised occasion which did Frome proud. And congratulations to Stephanie, who couldn't have put more effort into encouraging the next generation of potential medal winners, as well as charming some of the older participants who probably didn't expect to collect their goody-bags from a real live Olympian.
I'm sure there will be some who will be upset that roads were temporarily blocked off and they were briefly inconvenienced. I just hope they recognise that there were hundreds of happy participants, and what a good advertisement the event is for our town.