Foodbank 5.5K

A new event in Stockport is the Foodbank 5.5K - a summer trail race in aid of the Foodbank charity.

The race is quite unusual in that the entry fee is £5 and a food tin of some sort!

The race has been held three times over the summer and has been a great success, raising over £1500!

I rustled up the money and a tin of baked beans in order to see what I could do at last week's edition. As the race is quite low key I had high hopes of a top 10 finish.

The first 2K of the race are next to a stream in Bramhall Happy Valley. After the initial sprint I settled behind a young boy and an older runner from my club who I was hoping to beat. I then overtook these two runners and settled behind an older guy who pulled me along at about 6:30 min / mile pace. After 2K you leave the valley, go up a short steep hill and then turn back along a road for a couple of kilometres before running back down into the valley and back to the start/finish line. During this whole period I kept the same place in the race - I had enough energy to keep up with the runners in front of me but no more.

I was happy with my finish time of 22:20 but this was only good for 13th place out of about 120 runners. If I had done the same time in the previous edition of the race I would have got fourth!

All in all a fun race. Hopefully it will be repeated next summer.

Last week's training:

Tue: 8 miles with 5 x 600m
Wed: 11 miles slow
Thu: Foodbank race
Sat: 11 miles with 7 @ half marathon pace. (The schedule called for a race so this was instead of racing.)
Sun: 17 miles slow

One more week before the taper!