Race date: Sunday 18^th January 2026

Race report by Jamie Lee

Race Background 

The Brass Monkey Half Marathon has been a Yorkshire staple since 1983, launched by the York Knavesmire Harriers as a tune-up race for runners preparing for their spring marathons. It started with just 23 runners and has since emerged as a popular winter half marathon, building a reputation for being fast, flat, and reliably cold. Because of this demand which caused the event to sell out quickly every year, the race has become balloted since 2024, with a total of 1800 places available this year.

Pre-Race

After running my first marathon in Manchester last year, I was by no means in the “never again” boat, but at the same time, I was happy to put another one on hold for the foreseeable future. Instead, I thought it’d be beneficial to use the consistent training schedule and base I’d built to start making an effort to chip away at my 5K, 10K, and half marathon times (in short, chasing the coveted sub 20, 40, 90 marks respectively).

My first year participating in the road leagues provided me with ample opportunities to tackle each of these. I managed to PB in the 5K at Loxley Lash and had Percy Pud scheduled as my 10K attempt (following a painful experience at Wilne). However, I was struggling to find a half marathon that my hill avoidant habits wanted to pursue.

With a notification that the Brass Monkey ballot was closing soon, a race that I had heard such positive reviews about for PB chasing, I signed up for the ballot not expecting too much. Yet, less than a week later, a new goal race was in place through success in gaining a balloted place (give me that luck for London next time!). The club was also allocated a number of places so it isn’t completely like playing the lottery at least.

Training 

I hadn’t run a half marathon distance since Manchester, so I concluded the 2025 road leagues by entering the Clowne half marathon in November as a fitness gauge (and to hopefully improve my road league position a tiny bit). Surprisingly, this ended up being a new PB despite the hilly terrain, but only just missing out on the sub 90 minute mark. Percy Pud fared much better with me comfortably breaking into sub-40, finishing 2025 with 2/3 goals ticked off, and giving me confidence to see out a sub 90 on a much flatter course. Brass Monkey was now only a few weeks away to hopefully wrap things up.

Training intently around the festive period felt hit and miss, with some days going smoothly, and several being marred by weather issues consisting of ice or snow (or both). I’d made an effort to start incorporating 5K race pace efforts into my longer runs, i.e. running 4:15 min/km (or 6:51 min/miles) which was the required pace to break sub 90. Aligning these sessions when the temperature was below freezing didn’t bode well as I have a bad habit of overdressing during colder temperatures. For me, that involves adding a beanie, snood, gloves, windbreaker, and additional base layers to my attire. For that reason, holding that pace for 5K felt torturous, and to repeat that another 3 times on top of that was a question I’d have to answer come race day.

Race Day

January 18th delivered exactly what you’d expect for the day before Blue Monday: a foggy winter morning with a touch of rain, and questioning “is this too cold or perfect running weather?” Brian Jenkins was very generous in providing me and Andy Hinchcliffe with a lift to the race, and the three of us made our way up to York. Having at least three of us car sharing is an important detail as the race organisers provide the opportunity for parties of 3+ car sharers (or anyone coming via buses, walkers, cyclists, public transport) into a raffle for three free entries for next year’s race. The main thing to note about this is to inform the group’s race numbers to the race info desk BEFORE 10am (we found that out afterwards…). There’s also a separate raffle for anyone donating food for the York Foodbank, and an opportunity to win a pair of shoes from Up & Running.

The race HQ is based at York Racecourse, in the Ebor suite, so a big space with bag drop facilities, a café, and just about enough toilets. There’s free parking on the field either side of the road entering the racecourse, but many cars were parking on the roads prior to that, causing a lot of the usual race day congestion.

The race itself starts along the road just outside the racecourse. It’s a flat lollipop shaped route, passing through mostly country roads, farmlands, and a few small villages. Not loads of support to keep your energy going, but with the course profile as flat as it is, I guess it’s the sacrifice those gunning for a PB are willing to compromise on. A good contingent of us were chasing that 90-minute mark, so it was quite nice to set off together in spite of the light but consistent rain. The temperature was approximately 6°C, making it a lot “warmer” than the preceding weeks I’d been training in, so donning “only” a vest (and gloves and a snood) felt just about enough.

At 10am, we were off as the swarm of club runners from across the North of England piled onto the roads through Bishopthorpe. I settled into a pace slightly faster than expected of below 4:10 min/km (6:42 min/mile) for the first half of the race or so, with water stations available after the 5K and 10K mark. However, around this point after the turn past Appleton Roebuck was when I reached a long stretch called Broad Lane. The lack of crowds became prominent, causing a dip in my motivation such that I remember it more as “Bored Lane” instead. The pace was still consistent, but mentally I was digging much harder and my mind perceived these pancake flat roads as tiny hills trying to hold me back. My imposter syndrome was telling me that I’d gone against the age old advice of not starting too fast, and this felt like the only thing on my mind for several kilometres that I became oblivious to what the course actually had to offer. Dodging puddles accumulated from the rain along with the occasional odour of the local farms were perhaps the main things keeping my mind away from my doubts.

After I passed 16K and beyond the third water station, I finally shook off the “you started too fast” demons, still comfortably under a sub 90 pace. I glanced at the back of a sign to see the initial 3 mile mark, meaning that I was back on the stick of the lollipop, and less than a parkrun to go. With that in mind, I gradually increased my pace, until I reached 20K when I really put my foot on the gas, putting in a split that I’d normally see at the track – no penalty reps here luckily.

The finish comes back along the road we started at and into the entrance area of the racecourse behind the grandstand, where I sprinted across the finish line with a shiny new PB to start the year (and my trinity of 20, 40, 90 completed). Maybe this will push me into trying out something new like more fell and trail runs?

Finishing rewards include a t-shirt for those who opted for one (something I initially opted against until FOMO kicked in seeing everyone with one), and a choice of a curly wurly and a freddo OR two Freddos (39p each now for those interested in the inflation of Freddos). There was also a stall selling beanies, particularly popular amongst the striders for having a green and yellow striped colour scheme available to match the club colours – keep an eye out for them in some of the next training runs!

Brass Monkey definitely lived up to the hype for being deceptively fast and full of early season optimism, making it a great race to kick start the year, especially if you’re chasing a PB. This was clearly evidenced by the wide smiles from many of the striders in attendance. Just hope you have luck in the ballot and the weather plays in your favour! If you get the chance to run, I’d recommend it – just remember to bring a spare pair of socks!

The race was won by Gavin Taylor of Leeds City AC in 01:05:04. The first woman was Lindsay Skinner from Off That Couch Fitness in 01:16:45.

 

 

 

Well done to the nineteen Striders including Caroline Brock who took 3rd place in the FV40 category setting a new F40 Half Marathon club record taking around 20 seconds off her own record with 83:24.