Race Date: Friday 12th September 2025

Promoted by Evensplits this series of 5k races have been popular recently and following a successful outing there in August Project Twenty – Even Splits York 5k, six Steel City were there for the September edition coming away with an unprecedented five (possibly six?) personals bests. First home was new man Gareth Winter whose 15:47 was only five seconds shy of Seth Kirby’s 15:42 club record. We say six as a  search for Gareth on Power of 10 reveals only one previous race, 16:17 at Loxley Lash in July, so possibly a pb although Power of 10 will not reveal any races run whilst unattached. Second in and second woman was Annie Chambers with a spectacular 17:48 and over a minute quicker than her previous best. Both Beth Varney and Claire Wren are products of Malcolm Baggaley’s 5k group who did so well in August. After finishing tantalisingly close to sub twenty here with 20:05 here in August, Beth Varney slayed the beast bettering that mark by over twenty seconds. Malcolm said that this was definitely a case of the Student beating the Master, catching and out sprinting him in the last 500m after he thought that he had committed the cardinal sin of setting off too fast. Malcolm confesses that, apart from Parkrun which doesn’t count, he has never run a 5k before so this is technically a pb. Meanwhile, Phil Gregory has been quietly chipping away at his pb lowering it for the third time this year from 19:21 to18:51 to 18:50 and now to 18:27. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

L-R Annie Chambers, Beth Varney, Malcolm Baggaley, Claire Wren and Phil Gregory. Gareth Winter has escaped the cameraman’s clutches so we still don’t know what he looks like.

Power of 10 reveals some interesting stats as in the process researching Beth Varney’s pb we discover that, in a previous existence and a long time ago with the now defunct Scunthorpe & District AC, she competed regularly at track and field at 800m, 1500m, 3000m, high hurdles, 400m hurdles plus anything else that the team manager asked her to do to get some points for the team. Hidden talents indeed.

In all a great night out.