A hot Stur Half…
Thank you to everyone who joined us. The extreme heat made this year's race particularly tough for many.
While a few runners had to pull out, the most serious incident involved a runner who collapsed after mile 12 from heat exhaustion. Thanks to the quick thinking of two water station marshals and a nurse runner, emergency services, medics, and our Race Team responded promptly. We are relieved to report that after an overnight hospital stay, he is doing well and sends his deep gratitude to everyone involved.
Despite the heat we saw 271 runners finishing in the Half Marathon.
Men's Winner: Lester James (City of Bath AC) – 1:11:25
Women's Winner: Abigail Jones (Poole Runners) – 1:29:22
Winning Men's Team: Poole AC
Winning Ladies' Team: Bournemouth AC
Our 5K continues to grow, with 67 finishers this year!
Overall Winner: Brandon King – 19:55
First Lady Home: Olivia Chapman – 21:02
Read more…
Special Thanks to Our Sponsors & Volunteers:
Honeybuns: for providing race cakes for over 20 years.
Harts of Stur: for supplying the local prizes.
Symonds & Sampson: for the mile markers.
Root & Vine: for finish-line oranges.
Running Free in Parkstone & Oltra: for sponsoring some of the race prizes.
TrueStart Coffee: for the delicious samples you found in your Goody Bags.
Local Supporters: The High School and all our incredible marshals from The Blackmore Vale Lions, Sturminster Newton Boxing Club, RunBlandford, Dorset Doddlers, and many friends.
Looking ahead to Next Year…
The Stur Half is traditionally held on the first Sunday in August. However, your safety is our priority so we are actively looking at changes for next year to beat the heat, including an earlier start time or a date change to avoid clashing with the Wessex Band Summer Camp. We will update you soon.
Thank you again for running with us and we would love to hear any feedback—good or bad—so we can keep improving.
Best Wishes
Christine – Race Director and the Doddler Race Team
See below for prizewinners and photos
Plus lots of photos from Charles Whitton's Team
Stur Half Location: Sturminster Newton, Dorset
Chip Timing – Free Parking – Race Village Food & Drink
About the Race…
Whether it's your first half marathon or your tenth, you'll feel right at home at the Stur Half – known for its welcoming atmosphere, beautiful countryside route, and legendary post-race cake!
The Stur Half, organised by the Dorset Doddlers is a road race and has been running around rural roads in and around Sturminster Newton since 1990.
We also have a multi-terrain 5k race, and while you are running we will entertain the children with races on the school field.
Race entry…
2026 Entry Fees: Half Marathon: £23 Affiliated / £25 Unaffiliated
The 5k: £7 to all runners
View the Registrations List (click on the top blue bar) to see who else will be running.
Online entries close at 12 noon on Friday 31st July. Entries will be taken on the day if places are still available for an extra £2.
The race is organised in accordance with UKA rules – Permit No. 30847. Course measurement: South of England 23/294
This year's race is a Dorset Road Race League Event
More details…
All finishers will receive a wooden race medal and a delicious Honeybun cake.
Our course record holders are Willard Chinhanau of Poole Runners 1:08:41, and Rebecca Moore of Chichester Runners in a time of 1:15:56
Prizes: along with the main prizes there will be prizes for the first local runners in both races. See more details here
A few rules: The half marathon has a time limit of 3 hours. You will be asked your predicted time when entering the race.
The course is quite narrow in some places, so for safety reasons it is not suitable for wheelchair athletes or runners with pushchairs.
The race is a earphone free race
Who we work with…
Thank you to all the local organisations and businesses who are supporting this year’s race, particularly
Honeybuns, our main sponsor,
Symonds & Sampson, for all our mile markers,
Harts of Stur for local and course record prizes, and
Root & Vine for all the juicy oranges at the finish.
If you need to contact us…
We do try to be as quick as possible but if you have any enquires that are not answered on this website please contact us and we will try to answer you. But don't forget that the week building up to the race is our busiest, and you may not get an answer straight away.
