FOUR school friends from Winchester have completed a half marathon and raised over £1,400 for sport relief.

The Henry Beaufort pupils, Lara Connolly, 12, Jess Bowyer, 11, Eloise Hunt, 12, and Megan Start, 12, followed a 3.4 mile circular route around Kings Worthy, Winchester, a total of three times to complete the 10.2 miles challenge.

Dubbed ‘The Runners in Red’, they kicked off at 10.30am on Saturday March 22, and followed the route from Springvale Road, through Bedfield Road to London Road and Lovedon Lane, and even laughed their way through hail stones and rain to cross the finish line together.

Lara said the fundraiser went “really well”, and that the four are planning to walk a full marathon next year.

“It’s all for a good cause,” she said.

“I think to start with we were going a bit fast so towards the end we were quite tired, but it was really good and we all crossed the finish line together which was really nice.

“We carried a bucket around with us and that on its own raised about £50. Most of the people we had never met in our lives before so we want to thank them all for being so generous.”

Lara’s father, Jon Connolly, said: “It’s nice to see girls their age doing something worthwhile together.”