Race date: 21 July 2024

Race distance: 4.8 mile

Across at my hometown for the weekend, I couldn’t resist the call of a local race, the Ipstones 5ish, just on the Staffordshire edge of the Peak District. Starting and finishing in the quaint village of Ipstones, this race had a myriad of running clubs represented, but I found myself the only Strider – I suppose that’s one way of being first for the club!

The race pulled no punches with its start, with a climb out of the village for the first mile, before turning onto a flat(tish) country lane, where I did my customary pose for the race photographer – a leap in the air that takes about a mile to recover from! After this was a steep descend on a farm track, that was a bit too hobbly bobbly to pick up any real pace. At the bottom of the hill it was back onto country lanes, with woods to your left and fields to your right. A brief period with a tractor pacing me (or more truthfully being very patient trying to find a spot it could overtake me!) was followed by a climb up a hill with a hairpin bend as we got to the 3.5-mile mark. As we got to the home stretch and the 4-mile marker was passed, I found myself wondering how far 5ish actually was? 5.1? 5.4? Surely no more than 5.5 miles or it’d be a 6ish! So it was a pleasant surprise as I turned a corner and saw the finish line in sight before we had even reached 5 miles! 5ish means 4.8 miles! Not that it was an easy finish, an uphill grass finish to cross the line next to Ipstones Village Hall.

First male was Ross Connor with a time of 27:27 and first female was Georgia Stanfield with a time of 30:15.

Race report by Rich Bailey-Jones