Located right underneath the city of Bath, the two tunnels originally served the purpose of being part of the Somerset & Devon Railway. That was until it 1966, when the tunnels were sealed and made inaccessible. That remained the case until 2013 when the tunnels were reopened as a path after seven years of work.

The Devonshire Tunnel is 408m long and the Combe Down Tunnel is 1,672m long and both can now be used by cyclists, runners and walkers. They ensure that each of the Two Tunnels Railway Races have the longest underground sections for their respective distances in the UK.

That creates a unique element to the races that really sets them apart from others. It’s certainly an interesting experience running through them. It was one that Oliver Hill got a taste of when he lined up for the Two Tunnels Half Marathon.

With very few long distance races on his résumé, it was bound to be an intriguing experience for Oliver. He’s more used to doing parkruns and has been a regular at Bournemouth parkrun for the past nine years.

He was very close to achieving a sub 18 there last year, clocking a best time of 18:02. His best time this year so far has been an 18:11 which he did at the end of March.

Oliver has also finished 16th in the Dorset Schools’ Championships Cross Country this year and also competed in the English Schools Cup Final which was staged in Leeds. He finished 101st in that one, completing the 5.23km course in a time of 18:20.

Oliver’s most notable long distance race to date was the Great South Run in 2023 when he ran superbly to get round in a time of 61 minutes 11 seconds. That was his first ever 10 mile race as well.

The Two Tunnels Half Marathon isn’t a flat course. In fact, it starts with an incline that goes on the for the first 1.5 miles. Oliver blasted up there with a 6:18 though for his first mile before following it up with a 7:08. The third mile was mostly downhill and he registered a 7:07 for that. It was definitely a quick first 5k from Oliver. The question was, could he sustain it as the race went on?

There were quite a few small undulations to contend with on the fourth mile and Oliver got through that in 7:19 before clocking a 7:03 for his fifth mile. The course flattened out after that for the next five miles and Oliver registered a 7:21 for his sixth mile, followed by a 7:30, a 7:22 and a 7:11 before getting through the tenth mile in 7:31.

That meant he’d made it to 10 miles in just under 1 hour 12 minutes and he had 5k left to go. It got tougher to maintain the pace after that and Oliver’s speed took a bit of a hit. He’d gone the wrong way as well at one point which added an extra 500m onto the distance.

Going through the 11th mile in 7:50, he then went on register a 7:45 and then a 7:48. When he reached the 13 mile point though, instead of have 0.1 of a mile left, he had half a mile.

The race ended with a climb back up to the park before OIiver made it to the finish line, He’d posted a time of 1:39:28 which put him 29th out of 611 finishers.

It was also enough to see Oliver finish as first Junior Male, meaning he was the first under 20 to get over the line. It was a good result for Oliver and he could certainly come away from it with his head held high. His average pace for the run was 7:20 and the elevation gain reached 675ft.

Jordan McLaren won the race in 1:26:29, with James Potts taking second in 1:27:10. Ed Davison got third in 1:27:16. Jessica Massheder was first female in 1:36:45 which put her 19th overall and Regula Hnni was 2nd lady in 1:37:38.

It was a solid performance and a good day out for Oliver and likely an experience he won’t forget running through the two tunnels. He’d no doubt take plenty of learnings from the experience and will utilise those when he next races a difficult game