This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Oswestry Olympians running club. To celebrate this milestone, the club have teamed up with the Marches School to bring a 10k run to Oswestry, including a children’s 2k fun run taking place before the official event at the school. This will take place at 9am on Sunday 1 March. This promises to be a lively, fun event, which has already been a sell out with 500 places filled. Music has been organised along the route on the Maesbury Industrial Estate. A personal trainer from Active8 gym will be warming the runners up at the start at the Marches School, where the race will also be finishing.

Ray Pickett of the running club explained why they decided to hold the event. “As well as the club’s birthday, we wanted to encourage others to show them that running can be fun, whilst raising some money for a local charity.”

Ray also explained, “Because we wanted to make sure we delivered a safe, organised event with minimal disruption to the community, we will have First Aid on site and we have worked closely with Shropshire Highways Traffic Management team. There will be road closures, but we will have a car following the last runners and will be opening roads back up as fast as we can.”

Amongst the runners are a team of over 50, raising money for the Veterans Appeal at the Orthopaedic Hospital. All finishers of the 10k will receive a medal, t-shirt and there are prizes for overall and category winners, if you feel like challenging yourself and aiming for a personal best.

When asked what originally motivated him to join the Oswestry Olympians, Ray said, “I started running six years ago after ill health. I made such improvement that I then decided to give the Great North Run a go and I’ve never looked back.” Other members of the club have also started from no running experience and are strong, regular members.

The club is very friendly and they ensure that no one is left behind during their weekly training sessions. These are held on Monday and Wednesday nights depending on your abilities. All of the running evenings start from outside the Oswestry Leisure Centre and take a route through town. Monday nights are for regular training and Wednesdays cover speed and strength exercises (great if you’re running any races this year). There are families who are members and if you have a child wanting to get involved with athletics, they have a Juniors club (for all details visit the website listed below).

Locals are encouraged to come out along the running route and support the runners and have a fun morning, whilst enjoying some music and a fantastic atmosphere. Events such as these raise the community spirit and bring us all together.

The running club have received support for the 10k event from their gold sponsors, Beaumont Wealth and Morrisons (providing water for the stations). Also involved are sponsors Oswestry Sports Forum and Oswestry Town Council.

Volunteers needed: adult event marshalls, water station volunteers. Please contact the Oswestry Olympians via their Facebook page (details below).

For information about the road closures, please visit www.oswestryolympians.com/marches-10k-race-info/

Other information is also available here:

Facebook – The Marches School Oswestry 10k

Facebook – Oswestry Olympians Athletic and Triathlon Club

Oswestry 10k Veterans Team fundraising page

www.justgiving.com/campaign/oswestry10k