Race Date: Sunday 9th October 2022

Race Report by: Rachael Toon

Sunday 9th October saw the inaugural running of the Brewers 10k, billed as the first closed-road running race in the home of beer, Burton-on-Trent. 

The race was a lollipop shaped route, starting and finishing at the Burton Albion FC stadium via a couple of the local villages and, most importantly, past my mum’s house. 

After parking up at my mum’s to avoid the post-race escape from the car park, my husband and I made the short walk to the stadium to pick up our race numbers and t-shirts. The bibs had apparently been posted out to runners in the week before but hadn’t arrived due to the postal strikes – although judging by the sealed, addressed envelopes we wondered if they had actually been sent at all. Apart from that the start was smooth and well organised – a bonus of races that start in stadiums is plentiful toilets!

Soon we were off, with a flat couple of miles out through the village of Stretton. These roads were where I first started running in 2014 whilst training for my first race (Derby 10k, which I did in Lord of the Rings themed fancy dress) and it was a weird but proud feeling to be running them in a closed-road race. Here I saw my mum for the first time. You’re never too old to shout ‘HI MUM’ and wave like a fool, apparently.

We then went out to the next village of Rolleston. Here was the water station, which marked half way, as well as my in-laws who were also out to support. 

My husband and I had agreed that we would take the race easy but by this point I was getting told off for running too fast ahead and warned about an upcoming hill section. I didn’t remember there being a big hill in that area but as we hit mile 4 and turned a corner there it was. I slowed down (for his sake, of course) and even gracefully declined his invitation to run off down the hill ahead of him. 

The last couple of miles after the hill were also flat, and with that, the circular route and the decent amount of support around the course this could be a good race for PBs. 

After seeing my mum twice again (she told me the day before she wasn’t going to follow me around the course, but she must have run between her last two vantage points to catch us) we were onto the last mile.

The last mile was a flattish straight path back to the stadium, slightly ruined by a car that had been let onto the closed road and which proceeded to drive at full speed against the flow of runners. Luckily we had all been naturally running to one side, otherwise there could have been a nasty accident.

With a quarter of a mile to go we made a sharp left turn into the car park and ran around the back of the ground before turning the corner to the finish line. I don’t like seeing the finish until it’s time to sprint so this was ideal! We decided to bomb the last bit and I nearly lost my breakfast as a result, but after the slow decline I had at Sheffield 10k it felt nice to finish strong.

We picked up our wooden medals and some water before heading back to my mum’s for a cup of tea and second breakfast.

For the first race held by an organisation not specialising in running events I was pleasantly surprised. The communication before the event was great (as well as the postal issues there’d been an incident the day before had put the course in jeopardy), the process on the day was smooth, the course was good, and the t-shirt and medal were good quality. Hopefully there will be some learning from the car incident, and Burton’s running scene can continue to benefit from having a local closed-road race.

The winner of the men’s race was Callum Abberley of Burton Athletics Club in 33:47. The winner of the women’s race was Sally Higgs, unaffiliated, in 40:06.

Striders Results: