It's the Westonbirt House Easter 10K
Oh, no it isn't. It's the Westonbirt House Autumn 10K
Oh, no it isn't...!

Well, it may be a bit too early for the pantomime season, if there is to be one, but the truth is the Westonbirt House Easter 10K, near Tetbury, was postponed from Good Friday, 10th April and had morphed into the Westonbirt House Autumn 10K on Saturday 31st October, due to you know what.

The seven-month delay only served to fuel anticipation and 300 runners were unleashed – with all the necessary COVID-safe precautions in place – within the grounds of Westonbirt House, described by Country Life magazine as: “the finest example of Victorian architecture, landscape and gardens in the Cotswolds”.

The runners in the 10K benefited from following the earlier duathlon, which was held in the teeth Storm Aiden. It was still wet and windy when the first waves of the 10K set off at 12:00 noon but, as our picture shows, the race finished in brilliant sunshine.

The top three men broke 40 minutes on the testing, two-lap course through the 25 acres of ornamental woodland and part of Westonbirt Arboretum. Ricky Montacute (Royal Engineers, 36:40) was a comfortable winner from Rob Abraham (37:45) and Max Thompson (39:04).

The women's race saw a similarly convincing win for W40 Caroline McAleese (Vegan Runners, 43:20) from W50 Clare Joliffe (44:06) and Laura Skinner (45:54). 

Just under 50 runners went inside 50 minutes and there were 298 finishers in 2:21:48 and plenty of praise for the dedicated army of volunteer marshals, many of whom were at their posts for both events.

Full results are available via runABC South's race listing here

Image courtesy DB Max Events on Facebook