Sunday the 12th December saw the return of an annual favourite. Having been sadly cancelled due to the pandemic in 2020, the Blackburn 10k was finally back for it’s second instalment.
Home of RunThrough’s founder Matt Wood and Northern teams Katie, there was a real excitement about this event. It’s not often you get to start and finish a road closed event in your home town’s Championship football stadium!
The race started and finished at the home of Blackburn Rovers, and followed a road-closed course over the famous Millennium bridge, and into Blackburn town centre, passing the Cathedral, King Georges Hall and many of the towns main landmarks, before returning up through Mill Hill and back to the stadium.
The front end of the race was hotly contested with a real battle taking place amongst the top 4 finishers in a Blackburn Harriers battle. The race was eventually won by Blackburn Harrier Matt Ramsden in 31.27, with Jack Green of Warrington AC taking 2nd in 31.44 to break up the podium, Ben Fish also Blackburn Harriers finished in 3rd in 31.54, with Joe Bridge in 4th.
In the Women’s event, the first home was Lucy Rawlingson in 41.12, with Natalie Vose of Wigan Harriers in (42.44) in 2nd and Julia Hartley of Accrington Road Runners in 3rd (43.02).
The event also had a kids race, which involved running 1 lap of Ewood park, this was won by Alex Mckinlay and Grace Sharples, and created a great atmosphere with parents and spectators cheering the entire way.
Every runner was greeted back into the stadium to cheering spectators in the stands, and a plethora of volunteers and police cadets giving out goodies.
These included a unique Christmas themed Blackburn 10k medal, Actiph Water, mince pies, Tenzing energy sachets, YourZooki, Kind Bars and Love corn.
Special thanks to Blackburn Rovers Community trust and our sponsored partners Suez for supporting the event and allowing it to go ahead so smoothly. We also want to thank the Sea cadets, Police cadets and local volunteers for marshalling, running our bag drop and overseeing the finish line. We simply could not put these events on without the support of the local community and volunteers.
Hopefully we’ll see you join us next year on the 4th December 2022!
