Record 2,300 runners take part in Market Drayton 10k race

The Market Drayton 10k race drew a field of about 2,300 runners, more than 35 per cent up on last year's total.

This year's run went through the centre of Market Drayton with bands and a market laid on for the day.

It started at 11am at the Grove School in Newcastle Road where there were also a family fun day and children's fun run at 10am.

There was also entertainment along the route, with bands playing outside the Joules Lord Hill and Red Lion pubs in the town centre.

Runners World magazine has ranked the Market Drayton event as as the UK's best 10k race for two years running and it is going from strength to strength.

Race director Tim Beckett said a lot of planning had to go into the event, such as finding, sorting and allocating marshals, putting road closures in place and providing medals, goody bags and water for the competitors.

He said: "I revived this event 10 years ago in 2004 after a seven-year absence from when it used to be organised by the then carnival committee and in that first year we had 125.

"Within five years I had built it up to the largest 10k in the West Midlands.

"I achieved the unthinkable as I got the race to the number one 10k in the UK for two years running, 2012 and 2013.

"No race has won this award twice let alone a town of our size.

"It is usually the large city funded races like Liverpool 10k, London 10k that win this award. My ultimate aim is to win it for a third year running.

"This event is always lively and colourful. For spectators, it was a great sight to see so many runners, all of different abilities, coming to our town from all over the country."

All runners received a goody bag which included a T-shirt, medal, gingerbread, chocolate bar, tray of yoghurts, pork pie or sausage roll, a pack of mornflake oats and a voucher for a free pint of Joules beer.

The first man and woman across the finishing line received £100 cash and prizes were also given to the first 15 male and female runners, as well as in the veterans category.

Tom Roberts, of Meirionnydd Running Club, won the race with a time of just over 32 minutes, and the first female runer was Kim Fawke-Williams, of Centurian Running Club, with a time over around 35 minutes.

Among those taking part in the race was a group of five superheroes.

Captain America, Iron Man, Wolverine, Spiderman and Deadpool were on hand to raise money for The Brain Tumour Charity, as well as helping to fund a new artificial sports pitch at Grove School.

The five men, all from Market Drayton Hockey Club, kept their identities secret as part of the fundraiser. The superheroes had spent the week in costume around town to raise awareness of what they were doing and they asked members of the public to choose the hero they thought will come first in the race. Wolverine won.

A donation of £5 secured entry in the contest and prizes were on offer to the winners.

The prizes included tickets to the Rock and Bowl Festival, hoodies and meals for two.

Staff from Market Drayton festival shop Festour organised the fundraiser and hoped to raise as much money as possible for their two causes.

The Brain Tumour Charity is close to the heart of director Nick Cooper whose next-door neighbour suffered a brain tumour a few years ago.

Mr Cooper, 38, said:"Whatever we raise, we'll wish we raised some more, so we tried to get as many people involved as possible."

Mr Beckett said a number of improvements had been made to this year's event in response to comments and suggestions make by past competitors.

The start-finish area was twice as wide as it was last year and there were also marked pens for predicted finish times.More toilets were in place to reduce waiting times.

Another improvement was a dedicated team to take total charge of the fun run, with an earlier start time of 10am.