Hayley Stockwell will be pretty familiar with the route when she takes part in Sunday’s Stroud Half Marathon.

That’s because the 13.1-mile course takes her right past the front door of the shop she owns in Stonehouse.

Hayley runs H.S. Cake Design and although cakes and running are an unlikely combination it certainly works for Hayley because she is not one of those people who has her cake and eats it.

“I don’t eat cake at all, I don’t like it much,” she laughed. “My kids and my husband are the cake tasters in our family.”

And while she has a thriving business – “Most celebrations can be covered by a cake,” she said – she also has the recipe for success when it comes to her running.

Not that the 41-year-old mum-of five has been running all her life, far from it.

“I’ve been running for seven years,” said Hayley, “I’d given up smoking a couple of years before that. I used to be quite active when I was younger, I was into horseriding and I owned my own horse.

“But even after I’d given up smoking I still felt that I wasn’t as fit as I could be.”

Fortunately Stroud and District Athletic Club were running a beginners’ course around this time.

Hayley signed up, liked it and everything has taken off from there, so much so that anyone looking at her racing calendar for this year could be forgiven for feeling tired just reading it.

But although these day Hayley’s is a familiar face on the distance running circuit, she can still remember the first session of her beginners’ course like it was yesterday.

“I remember I was so chuffed,” she said. “I ran from Archway to Stroud College without stopping, I was so excited.

“In hindsight there wasn’t much to be excited about at all, it wasn’t very far at all, not even a quarter of a mile!”

Hayley may be being a bit harsh on herself there. By her own admission she was “starting from scratch” having never ever run before.

“Why run if there are cars and buses,” she said.

But once she started the beginners’ course she was well and truly hooked.

“I kept going back every week,” she said. “I was getting stronger and stronger and I loved it.”

And living where she does in Stonehouse with her husband of 20 years Adrian and their children – the oldest is 19 and the youngest 13 – certainly lends itself to the sport of running.

“It’s a fantastic area to run, it’s just five minutes from the Cotswold Way,” added Hayley.

And Hayley certainly runs and runs. “I run three times a week, sometimes four,” she said. “I train with Stroud on Tuesday and Thursday nights and then go for a long run on the weekend, that’s my head space.”

The Stroud AC club runs are usually around six to eight miles but at the weekend Hayley certainly ups the ante.

“If I’m training for a big race I can run up to 30 miles,” she said, “if it’s something a bit shorter I’ll do 12 to 15 miles.”

Hayley is massively into her ultra distance running which she considers to be anything over 30 miles.

Press her and she’ll say that 45 to 50 miles is her favourite distance although it’s less than a month since she completed the Cotswold Way Century, which as the title implies is run over 100 miles.

The Stroud Half is a lot shorter than that but it’s still not for the faint-hearted of course.

Hayley has run the event once before – she clocked one hour, 54 in 2011 – but admits she is not sure what to expect this time around after her exertions in her September 100-miler.

“I don’t know what I’ve got left in the legs,” she said. “I’d like to improve on the time I did last time, if I could do 1.50 I’d be happy.”

And Hayley would have every reason to be pleased because she has certainly been a very active runner in 2018, seemingly running 10ks, half marathons, marathons and ultra marathons for fun.

“I did the Bath Festival Marathon in August,” she said, “It was about 32 degrees. I finished in about five hours, eight minutes and it was one of the toughest marathons I’ve ever done. It was extremely hot.

“Only about half the competitors finished, it was unreal.”

Clearly Hayley is a tough cookie as well as a decent runner. She has done “four or five marathons” and they are “usually off-road, hilly, grassy and muddy”.

She also ran the Shakespeare Marathon in Stratford this year where she set a PB of three hours, 53, but it’s even longer distances than 26.2 miles that really get her going.

So what is it about running up to 50 miles in one go that she likes so much?

“It’s long enough to make it feel like it’s worth getting up for and difficult enough to make me nervous in the morning,” she said.

“Every time I do a race over this distance I’m not worried about the time, it’s more about self-preservation. It’s about maintaining a steady pace although I still want to finish before dark!”

She took part in the 45-mile Green Man Ultra last year, an event based around Bristol and one that she completed in nine hours, 21 minutes.

That’s a lot of time spent running and while in many ways it can be a lonely sport, Hayley is never short of encouragement.

“My husband is very supportive,” she said. “He takes me to most of my events and he’s always at the checkpoints and at the finish. My children are quite often there as well.”

Her children – Zac, Adam, Natasha, Mia and Ethan – have yet to inherit Mum’s love of running but their dad is a bit of a runner and is a member of Stroud AC.

So who is the better runner, Mum or Dad?

“Me, obviously,” laughed Hayley. “That goes without saying, we all know that.

“But he shoots longbow and I don’t. He’s a member of Deer Park Archers and shot for the county last year. I have to give him that, he’s better than me at that… but only because I haven’t tried it!”

That would be another challenge, of course, but in the meantime Hayley still has ambitions when it comes to her running.

“I’ve never run abroad,” she said, “that’s on my bucket list. There’s a lovely ultra marathon in Turkey and there’s one in Austria.”

Hayley clearly has no plans to stop running any time soon.

Hayley’s 2018 race calendar
14th January – Riverbank Rollick, 3rd V40.
15th April – Offa’s ‘Orror, 4th V40.
13th May – Shakespeare Marathon, 29th F.
10th June – Welsh Castles Relay, 8th F.
13th June – Cirencester 10K, 3rd V40.
17th June – Cheltenham Challenge Half, 3rd V40.
30th June – Cotswold Way Relay, 18th F.
12th July – Thornbury 10K, 2nd V40.
22nd July – Bath Running Festival Marathon, 3rd V40.
4th August – Mendip Marauder 30-miler, 4th F.
22nd September – Cotswold Way Century, 6th F.