“Not in pain,” Carroll quipped when asked if the half marathon was a step back for the runner.

“But in terms of the amount of time you run for, this is pretty quick for me.”

Pretty quick, indeed. Carroll blitzed the field.

Carroll clocked a time of 1:12:56 to take out the 2018 Tamworth Running Festival Half Marathon.

He beat his nearest competitor Bruin Hutchings (1:22:33) by almost 10 minutes while third-placed Daniel Gooch finished in 1:24:10.

Brittany Campbell was the fastest of the female competitors with a time of 1:26:59.

Carroll’s time was five and half minutes better than his previous best which came at last year’s half marathon in Tamworth when he finished fourth in a time of 1:18:32.

The speedy time came down to a number of factors, Carroll said, but it all started with his training with his group back in Armidale.

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“We do a lot of hill work, mostly on the trails but you get a lot of good endurance,” he said.

“The half marathon is a good base and we do a bit of speed work as well. We’ve got the parkrun up there too, which is great, but I just felt good out there. It was a big PB.”

Being so far in front of the other half marathon entrants meant Carroll had no direct competitors to run with.

However, with the Tamworth Ten and Fun Five races running at the same time meant he wasn’t short of company.

“We got to pass, because it’s two laps, a lot of the 10K [runners] and that’s always fun,” Carroll said.

“I didn't find it too cumbersome getting around.

“They give you a cheer as well so I quite liked being able to run with other runners opposed to being by yourself the whole time.”

In the Tamworth Ten, Mason Scott was the quickest home in a time of 33:15. Peter Loveridge (34:44) was second, Dylan Koppschall (35:48) was third and Kelly Watson (39:46) was the first female home.

Jeremy Boller (18:06), Ben Abell (18.12) and Lester Noble (19:08) were first home in the fun five while Chiyo Brown (19:53) was the fastest female.