Mallory Park Race Rapid 5k

A largely damp and dreary Halloween Sunday (31st October) saw the hosting of one Race Rapid’s now regular 5k race events at Mallory Park. The race played a dual purpose, serving as the Leicestershire and Rutland County AA 5k Road Race Championships.

An in-form duo of Aaron Smith and Samuel Jepson-Rivers made the hour plus trip to the famous racecourse with hopes of a good time on the fast course.The race entrants were split into two race times, a departure from the small group multi ‘wave’ starts that have coloured previous incarnations of events held over the past 12 months or so.

GRC twosome started the day a little downbeat in attitude and expectation in response to the howling gales and driving rain that had beset the East Midlands since sunrise.Miraculously, as if ordained by a higher power, blue skies and a welcome gap in the winds coincided with the warmup and race to provided Aaron and Sam near perfect running conditions, if a little moist underfoot.

Electing to attack from the start, Sam’s tactics paid rich dividends as he finished in 3rd place in the 1100 start. Clocking 17:54 he was justly chuffed with his work. He also bettered his previous PB by over 30 seconds and chalked up an age grading of 72.63%.

Taking the excellent recent form of the last few months and multi distance race success of late, Aaron suffered a minor setback in the final moments before the gun, having a watch malfunction!

It needn’t have mattered, his mature pacing once again coming to the fore as he cast aside his hitherto previous 5k PB of 19:10 (set almost exactly a year ago at the same venue) to bust not only 19 minutes but slaying it emphatically. Clocking 18:31 he too was justifiably pleased with his effort.

The overall meet was won by Callum Hanlon of Leamington AC in a time of 15:05 (ran at 1200) and the leading woman was Grace Carson of Loughborough Students AC in a time of 16:34 (also ran at 1200).