Race History

The first 10k was organised by the Shelton Striders back in 1991, the 6th October to be precise. The event was the brain child of John Roberts who was the chair of Field Lane Joggers (sadly no more ) at the time. He approached Ray Hitchcock one of the Shelton Striders founder members to help organise the event. This was because of the reputation that the Striders had and still have to organise events such as this. John Roberts put up all the prizes and trophies for the run, as this was his way of putting something back into running, the thing that had given him so much pleasure over the years.Ray Hitchcock was very meticulous with his preparations for the event, ensuring everything that could be done was done, that the run was the correct distance and marshalled to a high standard. Needless to say he was successful in doing that. The early events were classed as “Fun Runs” that got us out of having to apply for licenses etc but that soon changed to become an “official” event in the race calendar.
Merrill College came onto the scene around 1996/1997. An approach was made by Kevin Mason from the PE Department at Merrill to see if they could join us to help promote the event and to use their facilities. This was readily accepted. The event continued to grow year on year also moved home due to a new college being built on a new site that entailed finding a course, that in general, followed the old but with slight alterations at the start and finish.

In 2012, Shelton Striders decided it was time to go it alone. This was a major decision for the club and entailed moving the race headquarters to Boulton Lane Park Community Centre and the start and finish onto the old canal path. This meant another change to the race route but making it virtually the same as the route used when the race was based at the old Merrill school

The 10k and Fun Run are now embedded in the race calendar, usually around the same date in October