There are Monday mornings when you come into work feeling fairly pleased with yourself because you managed to answer a few emails before 9am.
Then there are Monday mornings when one of the directors strolls in having run 13.1 miles around Torbay in an hour and a half.
Yes, annoyingly, Tom Hutton was at it again.
Not bad for an old boy…
At 54 years young, Tom completed Sunday’s Torbay Half Marathon in 1:30:15, finishing 86th overall and 8th out of 94 runners in his MV50 age category.
For the non-runners amongst us, 1:30 for a half marathon means averaging roughly 6 minutes 53 seconds per mile over the official 13.1-mile distance. That’s not jogging. That’s running at the sort of pace most people would be quite pleased to maintain for a couple of minutes before looking for somewhere to sit down.
And rather than trying to invent a percentage of all 54-year-olds who could do it, the race result itself probably gives the best perspective: Tom finished inside the top 5% of the half-marathon field and inside the top 10% of his age category.
So yes, it’s pretty decent.
Before we get too carried away though, Tom has been running for years. He’s done more races than most of us have had hot dinners, so we’re not going to make too much of a fuss.
Besides, there’s absolutely no need to congratulate him when you next see him.
He’ll almost certainly tell you about it anyway.
A brilliant day for Torbay
Joking aside, the Torbay Half Marathon has become a genuinely fantastic event and one Tom looks forward to every year.
The 2026 event was the biggest yet, with nearly 4,000 people taking part across the Half Marathon and 10K, attracting runners from across the UK to the English Riviera. The organisers also introduced a new route this year, taking in landmarks including Torquay Marina, Princess Gardens and Princess Pier.
For a local event, it now has a real big-race feel about it. The crowds, volunteers, marshals and atmosphere around the course were superb and seeing thousands of people running through Paignton and Torquay makes for a pretty special Sunday morning.
It’s also another great advert for this part of the world. Sea views, closed roads, thousands of spectators and a finish beside the coast — there aren’t too many better backdrops for a half marathon. The event itself describes Torbay as a hugely popular seaside running location and it’s easy to see why.
Tom’s been involved with the event as a runner for many years and has watched it grow into what is now one of the standout dates in the South Devon sporting calendar.
So what has any of this got to do with web design?
Not a huge amount, admittedly.
We could give you something inspirational about consistency, putting in the miles, marginal gains and how building a great website is a marathon rather than a sprint.
But that would be pushing it.
Although there is probably something in the fact that good running and good web design both involve years of experience, plenty of work behind the scenes and making the finished result look considerably easier than it actually was.
We’ll take that.
For now, congratulations to everyone who ran, volunteered, marshalled, supported or helped organise another cracking Torbay Half Marathon.
And, reluctantly, well done Tom.
1:30:15 at 54. We’ll give you that one.
Just don’t mention it in every client meeting for the next six months.
