Sophie Bestwick is looking forward to being on the big stage when she takes part in this year’s Cheltenham Half Marathon next month.

The annual event, which takes place on Sunday 1^st September, has become one of the showpiece occasions on the town’s sporting calendar and always attracts good crowds.

And the just-turned 28-year-old Sophie is certainly used to performing in front of good crowds because she works in the theatre.

“I’m an actor, I tour all over the country,” she said. “Cheltenham is my home but I’d say I’m away for 46 weeks of the year.”

Sophie is primarily a stage actor and her job has taken her to Italy, France, Luxembourg and Belgium.

When she spoke to The Local Answer last week she was in Italy, although, as it happened, that had nothing to do with acting.

“I’m in San Remo, I’m teaching English to a class of Italians,” said the one-time Cleeve School pupil.

It was 9.30am Italian time when we spoke and it was already 26-27 degrees with Sophie expecting the temperature to reach 31 later in the day.

That was very different to the weather she’ll encounter when she’s under starter’s orders for the Cheltenham Half, of course, and it’s fair to say she’s looking forward to running on home soil.

“It’s where I grew up and it’s one of those half-marathons where you know there’s always going to be plenty of support,” she said.

“It’s lovely to see their faces. There’s always somebody cheering you on or a happy marshall. Four miles in I’m always emotional!”

This will be Sophie’s sixth or seventh Cheltenham Half. She has a best time around the course of one hour, 42 minutes and is aiming for sub 1.45 at the weekend.

She has a best time of 1.34 in the half-marathon, which she set in Treviglio, Italy, and is a seasoned runner these days after taking up the sport some 10 years ago.

She is a member of Cheltenham Harriers although she didn’t join the club until  two or three years ago.

“I ran unattached,” she said. “I did the classic of thinking I wasn’t good enough to run for a club.

“I met some Harriers at the Cheltenham parkrun, they were really friendly and said I should give it a go.

"I should have joined the club a lot earlier.”

Sophie is a big fan of  parkruns adding: “I do them every Saturday, that is something I consistently do whatever part of the country I’m in.”

She’s also a pretty consistent marathon runner too – she has a best time of three hours, 25 – having done quite a few in this country as well running the Paris, Athens and Boston marathons.

She’s actually using the Cheltenham Half as part of her training block ahead of the Florence Marathon on Sunday 24^th November and although she’s now done a fair number of marathons she readily admits she prefers running 13.1 miles.

“It doesn’t put so much strain on your body,” she said. “The training isn’t so intense.”

She still prefers a marathon to a 10K though.

“I haven’t cracked the 10K,” she admitted. “It’s my least favourite distance. It’s not long enough to settle into an endurance race and it’s not short enough to gun it.

“I’ll keep going though.”

And one of her motivations to keep going is that the more races she runs the more mementos she receives.

“I like shiny things, they always give you a shiny thing when you finish,” she said with a laugh.

Sophie’s mum Kate, who has followed her daughter into running, is taking part in the 10K on Sunday so they are sure to be swapping running stories later in the day.

And Sophie certainly has plenty to talk about when it comes to running because she has enjoyed a varied career, including one or two track events for Cheltenham Harriers.

“I was asked if I’d do the steeplechase,” she recalled. “I’d never jumped a hurdle before but I said ‘yes’.

“It turned out there were only two of us in the race.”

Sophie finished second… but at least she got a shiny thing!

The Cheltenham Half Marathon, which starts and finishes at Cheltenham Racecourse, gets under way at 9am.