Race Date: Sunday 20th November 2022

Race Report by Coleen Moore

Having gone down to Ross on Wye to see a friend, my husband and I decided to take in a local race and parkrun over the weekend. The parkrun was freezing and all on grass but we got round and did a bit of volunteering too :).

The Forest runner series is set around the country and run by Forestry England. The one we took part in was around the Forest of Dean. Our friend and I took part in the 5k while the husband did the 10k. Not being a particular fan of trail, or as anyone who knows me hills, this wasn’t really up my street but the first 2k was a nice ramble around the woods. However at 2k a large long hill presented itself and I have to admit I walked along with about half the field, at the top the 10k split off. After the hill there was another flat section and then a nice downhill through the woods that I threw myself down. Then a flattish stretch to the finish. Somehow I had finished 5th woman with a time of 31:35 but there was only 58 competitors in the 5k. We got a nice wooden medal, a snood and a goody bag containing a chocolate milkshake which I was most excited about.

Alex Millington was first man in the 5k in 21:29 and Ben Conway in the 10k at 44:05.The first woman in the 5k was Emily Redall in 27:20 and Rachel Gibbs at 50:10 in the 10k.

There was a bit of controversy when a guy ran the 5k with a 10k bib so looked to have won but was then found to not even be the named competitor and was disqualified.

58 runners took part in the 5k and 154 took part in the 10k.

Striders Results: 5k