Very tough 10K but I’ll be back next year to hopefully do better. The run takes you through Woodbank and Vernon Park on a mixture of surfaces. Once through there you continue through a housing estate (after going up Fred Perry Way) then back into the town centre. Tech T shirt and medal for finishing and for under £20 it’s a bargain. 

My first year at Stockport and if I’m really honest, if it wasn’t for the huge Vegan Runner meet up, it’s not a race I’d do again. Yes, the cost was cheap at only £12 and the registration was simple and straight forward however there were too many ‘okay’ parts in a race calendar that is saturated by better experiences. My first negative would be the lack of ‘road closures’ or at least a section coned off- at times we had to cross main roads and were simply told ‘mind the car’. Not so easy at 10k pace. The route was typical inner town streets and some park. This is fine however it incorporated gates and bollards with no advance warning so Runners ended up bottle necked at points. Marshall’s were few and far between and runners relied on using the arrows and simply following the person in front. Water was at 3km and again no advanced warning so simply missed it. Too early in the race in my opinion. The finish area was well supported and the finishing funnel was well manned. A basic tshirt & medal was good value for £12. In future, I’d ask organisers to look at why they used plastic bags for one trek bar and a few flyers. Not needed. Will I do this again- probably but only due to the huge VRUK meet up.

The course was over quarter of a kilometre short. Confirmed with the 50+ other runners linked on Strava all of the GPS devices can’t be that far out! Only one water station at 3km...not ideal for most people and could have used more Marshalls to distribute. Other than that good value for money, good mix of road and parks...shame my PB won’t count as it’s not a full 10km

I enjoyed this race. Well organised and great value for money.

I've done my usual (overkill) write-up on my blog, so rather than  repeating all of that, here's the link to it!

https://farrin.me.uk/race-review-big-stockport-10k

It was all low key despite being a well organised event in the town and was suitable regardless of whether you're chasing a PB (fast course) or it's the first time you've entered a race.