My favourite 5k series
For the last two years, I've entered the Manchester 5K Sizzler series of races. Every year, I've been impressed by the organization and professionalism of the event. It's so inclusive too - when they say everyone is welcome, they are! My 5k time is in the plodder/shuffler zone, but every time the marshalls haven't looked impatient and have offered good encouragement to me. The race timings are put up on the internet usually within an hour of the race finish, there's prizes and there are goodies at the end of the race. They're reshaped the course this year to try and prevent some of the problems that were caused by the torrential downpours of the British summer, so it will be interesting to see how that goes.
If you're based in the North-west of England - please give these races a try, they're not cliquey and they helped me improve my time by 3 minutes over the whole series. You can run the whole series of 4 races, or just enter individual ones on the night. Interested? Here's the entry form.
