From Dave Foyston…

On Friday I headed over to Cheshire to take part in the Mid-Cheshire 5k. 

The current course records are 13.45 and 15.28.

The race is held on quiet countryside roads which are closed to the public, the race is chip timed and this course hosts the England Athletics 5k Road Racing Championships.

The weather was perfect – sunny with zero wind.

This was one of my target races for the year. I had been training since the start of 2023 to try and drop my 5k time to sub 16:30 – a big challenge but I felt that I was ready to give it a go.

So I lined up with 707 other runners, representing Ilkley in a stacked field and off we went. I got carried along by the group and cleared the first mile in under 5 minutes, we then turned and had a mile of steady uphill. At this point the race got very congested with me having to weave my way through the runners ahead to keep myself in with a chance of my goal. 

The reward for tackling the hill was the final mile was all slightly downhill, heading into the final kilometre the pace got very quick glancing at my watch I was running the last kilometre in about 3 minutes.

I crossed the line in 16 minutes and 25 seconds.

I would definitely recommend anyone wanting a fast course to make the trip but I feel York University 5K course and the Barrowford course is slightly quicker.

The winner was Jack Grey, representing Cambridge & Coleridge in a time of 13:58