Tom Lee completed this year’s Tewkesbury Half Marathon in two hours, 17 minutes, 23 seconds. But that’s not actually the story.

His story is that at the age of 56 he has run competitively over 13.1 miles for the first time in his life and he’s understandably delighted.

“Yes, very, very pleased indeed,” he told The Local Answer. “I felt great, really good, even though it was very tiring.

“It was a very warm day. For the first seven or eight miles it was quite humid, it got quite hot.

“It’s the farthest I’ve ever run in a race. I have run the distance before – I was only jogging with a gang – and I did it in just under three hours.”

By his own admission, Tom, a commercial director for a construction company, hasn’t done anything sporty since he left school back in the early 80s, so what made him take up running?

“I’d been thinking about doing a Couch to 5k for a couple of years,” he said. “Then my wife saw that Tewkesbury Running Club were running a course and she said, ‘It’s about time you did this!’”

And Tom, who lives in Woodmancote, is absolutely delighted that he took his wife Sally’s advice because he joined Tewkesbury Running Club in September and has never looked back.

He goes running with the club three times a week and he said: “I really enjoy the social side of the club, just being involved. There were about 35 members of the club running the Tewkesbury Half Marathon.”

Tom was cheered on by his wife, of course, and he readily admits that he wishes he’d started running at an earlier age.

“Yes, I do,” said Lee, who is 6ft and weighs in at around 14st 7lbs. “But it’s only because of a change in my work arrangements since Covid that I have had the opportunity to do it.

“For me, it is just about fitness in my old age, I want to keep in shape.”

And Tom, who moved from London to this part of the world 10 or 12 years ago, has got his eye on another couple of half marathons.

“I’m probably going to do a few more, maybe Cheltenham or Stroud,” he said.

And what about a marathon, does he ever fancy having a go at running 26.2 miles?

“That feels a long way at the moment,” he laughed, ”but who knows?”

And such has been his progress over the past few months you certainly wouldn’t bet against him doing it one day!