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Spectrum Striders Running Club Birchwood 10K Road Race |
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Spectrum Striders Running Club Birchwood 10K Road Race |
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- Date: Sunday 17-Aug-2008
- Start: 10:30am
- Venue: Birchwood Shopping Centre (opposite Birchwood Railway Station)
- Fun Run: approx 1 mile, starting at 9:45am
The Birchwood 10k Road Race is our longest established event, it is the 25th race in 2008. The race was ranked in the top 100 UK road races by Runners World magazine in 2003 and 2004. It has recently attracted over 800 entries and we were pleased to host the Cheshire 10k Championship once again in 2005 and 2007. Within the race is a Corporate Challenge, open to runners from within the same work organisation and to "friends & family" teams.
Please note that the 2008 race again has an entry limit of 1000 runners. Entries on the day will only be accepted if the entry limit of 1000 has not been reached beforehand. We will post the current number of entries received on the front page of this web site in the run up to the race. Remember, it's "first come, first served"!
We are using chip timing again. Please read the instructions carefully for placement of the timing chip. The chips used in 2008 are again designed to be worn below the knee and will not register if worn elsewhere, for example on the arm. Several runners were missed from the initial results in 2006 because of this and it takes a lot of time and effort to correct the timings.
The 10k start time is 10:30am.
The 10k Race is run under UKA Rules. The minimum age for runners is 15 years.
We are not sure at time of writing exactly where the Race HQ will be, but it will be near to Birchwood Shopping Centre Car Parks 3 & 4. The previous Race HQ, the Silver Birch pub, is now permanently closed due to redevelopment work at the Birchwood Shopping Centre. The location of Race HQ will be posted here nearer race day.
The course is fast and flat, the only hills being three motorway bridges in the second half. If you are familiar with the race, the route is the same as recent years, with the new finish. It begins close to Birchwood Station and skirts the edge of Oakwood and Gorse Covert, before heading for Risley along Daten Avenue. It then takes on a rural feel meandering through the lanes of Croft before returning to Birchwood via Locking Stumps Lane into Fearnhead. The finish is at the end of Birchwood Boulevard with an excellent straight approach and avoiding the potentially busy junction of Benson Road.
Please click here to see a map of the race route. This map also shows the roads from M62 J11 - detailed directions to the race venue are below on this page.
As part of the Birchwood Races event, we also organise a small Fun Run, along a traffic-free course mostly on paths in Birchwood Forest Park close to the Birchwood Shopping Centre. The Fun Run is ideal for beginners and for family members of runners in the main 10k race. If you have young children, you can jog with them around the course, a great way to warm up gently for the 10k.
The route is about 1 mile, starting at 9:45 am.
You can pre-enter the Fun Run using the main 10K Entry Form, or enter on the day.
Please do not jeopardise the future of the race and please help things to run smoothly:
- The Birchwood Centre car park 4, immediately opposite Birchwood railway station, is partially coned off for race officials and traders.
- Please park in Birchwood Centre car park 3 and the remaining part of car park 4. If both are full, car parks 1 and 2 on the other side of the centre are only a short distance away. Please do not park in any access roads or in the Railway Station car park or in Birchwood Boulevard near the finish.
- Race day is a regular shopping day for ASDA and the Birchwood Centre. Please treat shoppers with every courtesy. We are adding hundreds of cars and thousands of people to an already busy area.
- Finally, please only use proper toilets rather than any nearby walls or bushes. If any part of the Birchwood Shopping Centre yard is used as a toilet, we will lose this venue. There are two sets of toilets in the area: in the Shopping Centre and in ASDA. Also we hire portaloos which are normally situated in car park 4.
Results for the current year are posted on this site as soon as possible after the race. Results for Birchwood 10k races back to 1998 are available in a variety of formats. For results, please click here to go to the Birchwood 10k race index page.
Race photos for the 2006 race are available for purchase on the Steve Bateson Photography site www.runningpix.co.uk.
We have some photographs of the 2005 10k race. Please click here to go to the photo gallery page.
Please note:
The closing date for receipt of 10k race postal entries by our entries person is Sun 10-Aug-2008. Entries may close earlier if the race limit of 1000 runners is reached.
Entries on the day will only be accepted if the entry limit of 1000 has not been reached beforehand. Remember, it's "first come, first served"!
Please put a 52p stamp on your SAE. With the extra weight and size of the chip, standard first class postage is not enough.
Entry forms
To view Adobe PDF files, you need to have Adobe Reader, which is already installed on most Microsoft Windows computers. If you do not have it and would like to install it, please click on the graphic below. Note that the Adobe Reader download is a 20mb file.
See below on this page for details of and entry forms for the 10k Corporate Team Challenge.
Entry Forms by Post
If you would like one or more entry forms sent to you by post, you can write to the following address, but you need to include an s.a.e. for forms to be returned to you: Birchwood Races, 7 Smithills Close, Locking Stumps, Birchwood, Warrington, Cheshire, WA3 7LT.
Spectrum Striders will allow runners to transfer their race number provided they submit a completed entry form which is clearly marked:
"Transfer runner number XXXX from previous runner <runners name>"
Please give as many details of the previous runner as possible; including "age on race day" and sex. We want to make absolutely sure we transfer the entry from the right person. The entry form for the new runner MUST be completed as normal with age, sex etc.
We would much prefer all changes to get to us by the closing date, but we will accept changes on the day at Race HQ. If you want to do this, please arrive early! For changes on the day, we can't guarantee they will be correct in the on-the-day results, although we hope they will if there are not too many changes.
We will not charge a transfer fee to do this unless we incur a cost such as a lost chip. We want to see the right names against the runners in the results.
We are again including a Team Challenge event within the 10k race. It is open to teams of 4 runners from the same company and working at the same site, also to Friends & Family team.
Teams must include at least one veteran (man aged 40+ or woman aged 35+) and at least one woman. A veteran woman in your team can meet both of these requirements. There are three company classifications:
- small (fewer than 500 employees)
- large (500+ employees).
- Friends & family
There is a special Challenge form.
Please note:
The closing date for Corporate Team Challenge race entries is Sun 10-Aug-2008.
Please put a 52p stamp on your SAE. With the extra weight and size of the chips, standard first class postage is not enough.
Entry forms Will be available here closer to the race date in both PDF format and Microsoft Word format.
Team members can either use the team form as their individual entry into the 10K race, or they can be included within the team if they have already entered the race separately.
Prizes & Age-Related Results
Prizes
Once again we anticipate an extensive prize list with awards in all veteran categories. For veterans, we award prizes to any qualifying winner. This means that, for example, a V50 might be quick enough to qualify for a prize in the V45 category. He would qualify because he is over 45. If somebody qualifies for more than 1 individual prize in this way, they will be awarded the prize of higher nominal value.
There is a luxury bath towel for all finishers and flowers for women.
Age-Related Results
For several years we have included a percentage figure in the results. This figure relates your performance to the standard (100%) for your age and sex. World standards are produced by the World Association of Veteran Athletes and correspond approximately to world record standards for a person of that age and sex in that event. We include percentage figures for everyone who includes their actual age on the entry form and there is a prize for the first man and woman based on their age related percentage. This prize can be won in addition to other individual prizes.
As a rough guide:
- 100% = approximate world record level
- over 90% = world class
- over 80% = national class
- over 70% = regional class
- over 60% = local class
Directions
Map of the Race Venue (Multimap - opens in a new window)
The easiest approach is from Junction 11 of the M62 - signed to Warrington East & Birchwood
- M62 to Junction 11 (between the M6 and Manchester/M60)
- Follow A574 Birchwood Way (signed to Birchwood & Warrington)
- Continue ahead at 1st & 2nd roundabouts on A574 (following signs for "Birchwood Shopping Centre" and "Station")
- Left at 3rd roundabout on to Oakwood Gate (signed to "Birchwood Shopping Centre" and "Station")
- Right at the BP Garage roundabout on to Dewhurst Road (signed to "Birchwood Shopping Centre" and "Station")
- Follow the road past the ASDA filling station, following signs to the Railway Station to Car Park 3. Please do not park in the Railway Station car park or in Car Park 4.
Other Approaches:
- From A580 East Lancs Road - leave the A580 at the Greyhound Roundabout by the Petrol Station and follow A574 Warrington Rd through Glazebury (past Bents Garden Centre) and Culcheth into Birchwood, then following signs to the Birchwood Shopping Centre and Station as above.
- From the south (M56 and M6) follow M6 northbound. Leave the M6 at J21 and follow B5210 Woolston Grange Avenue for 2 miles, then turn right on to A574 Birchwood Way and continue as above. Otherwise continue on M6 to M62 following signs to Manchester to leave at M62 J11.
Sponsors and Local Information
We are hoping that the following will continue to sponsor us in 2008, to be confirmed later in the year.
Birchwood Town Council.
Birchwood Shopping Centre allow us to use one of their car parks for the event. The shopping centre is open on Sundays, with a variety of large and small stores, so you can browse around the centre after the event. The Centre has recently been enlarged and refurbished.
Ronhill , sportswear manfacturer.
Further Information
We have tried to make this information page comprehensive, but if you have any other queries that are not covered here, please feel free to e-mail us with your question:
This page was last updated on 18/01/08
