On a cold, drizzly morning, 116 brave souls gathered to partake in the weekly 5k parkrun at Sutton Manor. It was the third edition of the 2025 RRC club champs and it certainly was a Ram takeover with 52 RRC'ers participating in the run and 6 rams volunteering (thank you to Jo, Andrea, Christine, Louise, Michelle and Katherine for volunteering and cheering us on!)
The Run Director kicked off the morning with a fab speech, proclaiming that Sutton Manor parkrun is like a great story: it has a great start, a great end, but a terrible twist in the middle. I know now what that terrible twist was…. Hills… and it seemed like lots of them!
9 o’clock rolled round and so we were off! The start was nice and chilled (makes a change from the masses who descend on Heaton).
The route begins on a gravel track and follows a relatively flat section (luring me into a false sense of security) before transitioning into a series of undulating hills. After the first hill we came across the ‘Dream’ sculpture- a 20 metre sculpture designed by Jaume Plensa. The work takes the form of the head of a little girl with her eyes closed, seemingly in a dream-like state.
What goes up must come down, but I was surprised at how steep the first downhill section was! Tackling it with not much grace at all, I just hoped for the best and plodded on.
The scenery was lovely at Sutton Manor, nestled in a woodland area there was plenty to look at to distract me from the difficulty of the actual run- lots of tall trees, a little stream and a duck pond at the end (which was slightly overflowing so you had to do a jump to negotiate it).
Shout outs to: Jonathan Wood, as well as hitting his 50th milestone he was the ram who finished the course in 1st place, the hills didn’t deter you! Well done. Lesley Heyes was the first female finisher - incredible work! And Sarah Sutcliffe on her 100th parkrun, what an achievement!
Finally I just wanted to sign off by saying this is the first year I’m participating in club champs. It’s always a little daunting trying something new for the first time, turning up to races (and even Tuesday’s club night!) without knowing too many people, but everyone has honestly been so welcoming and there’s always plenty of people to chat to.
If you’d like to give it a go but are feeling a little worried, please do, you won’t regret it.
Lauren Rowbotham RRC486
