By Gail Duckworth

While the younger members of the Club were competing in the East Anglian League in Luton I was the opposite end of the country in Horwich near Bolton.

The 5K Road National Championship has taken place here for several years mainly because it is incorporated in a weekend of various events including triathlon and cycling and running. The small town closes it roads while the events take place and having a traffic free location is always a bonus. Also, it enables the BMAF to have a Masters only race rather than being incorporated into an event.

The course starts outside the leisure centre which acts as headquarters. Running down the hill you then pick up the just over 3 lap course.  At the crossroads where you start the first lap you climb for about 400 metres doing this 4 times as the finish is just at the top of the incline.

As a Championship race at least it is the same for everyone and this year we also had a strong head wind  going up the hill (of course why couldn’t it behind us there and into you face going done the hill!!) which was reflected in the winning times.

My slow journey up did prove successful winning the W60 title in a time of 20 mins 36 secs and with road works it seems on every motorway the return journey was not so bad!