Presidents 5k Tuesday 15 April 2025

The annual 5k road race was held at Charles F’s house on what was a more pleasant evening than last year. At least until it rained at the end.

Charles has measured out a very accurate 5k course (well done Charles) with a testing uphill finish.

The evening starts with Charles leading a warm up round part of the course. A warm up round all of the course would probably finish many Harriers off. All runners then have time to get themselves ready as Charles deposits marshals round the course. He drives them round in his car.

I use an interval start. The intervals on Tuesday were 15 seconds. I tried to base the running order on the recent times at the road relays, but there are always bandits. Manisha was first away with Simon being last to go at an interval of 2:30.

Rob and Ansar helped me at the finish. Ansar taking photos and Rob reading out the times. What a team.

It is quite a stirring sight seeing the Harriers running up the hill into the finish. Simon was first to come into sight fairly closely followed by the other runners. It takes nearly a minute to come up the hill to the finish so many are in sight as each runner crosses the line. Roman was definitely running scarred as Krissie was hunting him down and closing rapidly. I mention bandits. Charles R managed to fool me into giving him an interval of only 1:30. It won’t happen again, Charles.

I think all who ran enjoyed it and a big thank you to Charles for organizing and all the marshals. Barry’s hair was getting wet at the end (he’s growing it if you haven’t seen him recently).

I’ve provided the results in two ways. The first set records the race finish places. I use a running clock so the times recorded aren’t the actual times except for Manisha who set off first. The second set records the actual time each runner took, with the interval removed. Simon managed to come first in both.

Already looking forward to next year’s race.

Race places

1st Simon 23:51

2nd Charles R 24:03

3rd Patrick 24:44

4th Roman 25:08

5th Krissie 25:10

6th Andy L 25:36

7th Andy C 25:55

8th Mark 26:17

9th Natalie 26:41

10th Liz 26:48

11th Manisha 28:26

Actual running times

1st Simon 21:21

2nd Charles R 22:33

3rd Roman 22:53

4th Krissie 23:25

5th Patrick 23:29

6th Andy L 23:36

7th Andy C 25:10

8th Mark 25:17

9th Liz 26:18

10th Natalie 26:26

11th Manisha 28:26

Craig