July 5th 2026
Race report by Sam Harper
Race 6 in the club championship series took place on a hot Sunday morning in Cleobury Mortimer. The pre-race information warns that this is not a course for a PB and the drive over Clee Hill to get to Cloebury Mortimer makes it very clear that you are not heading to flat terrain.
Cleobury Mortimer Running Club did a fantastic job of organising this race. The registration was seemless and there clearly marked route, so it was very easy to warm up around the start/end of the race around the school field.
There was a warm up session led by one of the Cleobury members along to some music and then the pre-race brief and we were off.
For a relatively small event – maximum runners 300 and 132 taking part, with a very reasonable entry fee of £18 – it was amazing that it was run on closed roads which felt very liberating running around the roads of the town and surrounding lanes, not having to worry about oncoming traffic around the corner and you could just run.
The start is quite speedy – downhill from the school to the main road of the town, but then there was a right hand turn and the first of quite a few climbs. It was ‘undulating’ with a total of 184m – but the challenge of getting up the hills is part of the fun and I do like a hilly route. We had been warned that we would encounter ‘Ron Hill’ towards the end of the race – but Ron was a little unforgiving just before the 9k marker – a very steep uphill climb which slowed down quite a few who felt the need to walk, but Croft Runners are used to hills and I did manage to pass a couple of runners walking as I ran past.
The last km felt like a long way as it weaved around some residential streets of Cleobury, but we were soon heading back onto the playing field to loop around it to the finish where there was great support for all the runners who were given a name check on the tannoy.
It was a great result for Croft Runners with Eric finishing first man in 35.20 and Hannah first lady in 43.13.
I was very please with my run – a 10k pb on strava for me and an age cat prize in a time of 48.43. There was also an age group prize for Miles in 45.56.
Other Croft results:
Steve Partridge 43.09, Mike Bending 49.45, Russel Limbert 51.09, Paul Lewis 52.54, Liza Austin 54.26, Steph King 55.39, Tori Dickinson 57.49, Roland Preece 58.58, Rob Martin 65.15, Frank Luscott 56.53, Huw Williams 57.28, Anna Bromley 57.28, Nicola Luscott 71.04, Christina LaMonica 78.42.
These results have been added to the club championship standings which can now be viewed on the website.
Thank you to Clare Preece for the photos and the support!
There were also a few official photos:
