A DATE has been set for next year’s Swindon Half Marathon – with organisers hoping a number of changes will help make the race run more smoothly on the day.

Competitors will take to the streets of the town for the 13.1 mile run on Sunday, September 9 and it is hoped that next year, the race will start earlier at 9.30am as opposed to 11am. Early-bird entries for the half marathon will open on Wednesday and run until January 1.

While this year’s race was deemed to be a huge success for the runners and charities involved, with over £65,000 being raised, lengthy traffic queues and severe delays for motorists was a hot topic among infuriated residents – something which organisers hope they have addressed. Tweaks have been made to the newly-revamped route but showcasing all that Swindon has to offer remains at the heart of the race.

Graeme Hardie, one of the race directors said: “We took on the bulk of feedback from people including competitors, residents and commercial outlets. They are the people that the race has to work for and this way round, we have the date fixed and the route will be fixed in the next four or five weeks.

“The reality of the half marathon is that we have to close streets and roads but that is why we are trying to give people 11 months’ notice. We accept the race will cause disruption but the amount of people it brings to the town and the amount of money people raise for charity hopefully people can put that to one side. A massive chunk of the complaints we had were people who knew the race was happening but said that it had never affected them in the past.

“As much as we said about the route, people didn’t realise it wouldn’t go out into the countryside as previous years but instead showcase what Swindon is about. It is only four hours on one day of the year.”

This year’s newly-revamped race, where Nationwide is the title sponsor, took competitors past local landmarks including the Magic Roundabout, the Oasis, the railway, the McArthurGlen Designer Outlet as well as Old Town. Organisers have confirmed that the race will still start at the County Ground and finish in the town centre but next year, the finishing line will be in Commercial Road.

As a result, around 120m will be lost from the end of the race.

Other changes include trying to work with the bus companies to put on race-specific services before the half marathon as well as introducing a children’s and family race.

An overwhelming 2,700 runners signed up for the inaugural new run and Graeme hopes a similar figure will sign up for next year’s event.

“If we start the race earlier, it means people will still have the chance to come into the town centre to do shopping afterwards,” he said.

“Where it was at 11am before, it was full bang in the middle of the day almost and so by starting earlier we will have it finished by the end of lunchtime.

“We genuinely don’t know how many people will sign up but feedback we have had shows it was successful from a competitors point of view. We expect to get a large influx of numbers in the first couple weeks and then it will taper off for a few months. This year we saw a lot of people sign up with a couple months to go.

“Bringing positivity to Swindon and opening people’s eyes to what Swindon has to offer is what we intended to do and while unfortunately we had a rubbish day of weather this year, so many people still lined the streets to wave and cheer people on.

“Everything we have changed has been an easy fix to make the race better, from the tweaks to the route to the traffic management and hopefully it will make a big different to residents but also those taking part.”

To sign up for the 2018 Swindon Half Marathon, visit www.newswindonhalf.co.uk.