Race Date: Sunday 16th November 2025

Report by Yasmine Chaffer

It takes a lot to get me to do a road race these days. They are just hard work, aren’t they? I do, however, find it hard to say no to a good time, so when some of my friends suggested doing the Alton Towers 5k, with theme park entry included on a day the park is closed to the public, I willingly (?) signed up. Though I did think halfway round the race that I could have just paid the entry and not actually done the race. Why was I slogging round at 9mph when I could have been going 60mph on Rita Queen of Speed?

The route was surprisingly difficult for somewhere that is all about fun. Lots of hills, very twisty, and a course that quickly narrowed which made it difficult to get a good position in the first kilometre. Despite this, I did enjoy it and ran a fairly good race, all things considered, and came in as sixth woman. I was also constantly reminded by mile signs that some were running a half marathon around the car park, which made me feel less sorry for myself at my darkest times.  I even unexpectedly bumped into fellow Steel City Ellen and Ed, who found it just as challenging.

With that out the way, it was onto the rides and we certainly got our money’s worth seeing as there was virtually no one there after 3pm, with it staying open till about 7pm – by the end of the day you were having to wait for more people to come so they would let you on the rides, rather than queuing to get on…Unfortunately we all felt fairly sick by the end of the day, due to a combination of hard running, too many rides and a very sad lunch indeed. However, an all-round excellent day and I would highly recommend it as a day out.

Very strong performance by U15 Gabrielle Pinder (New Marske) to win the ladies race in 17:26, which I believe took over 40 seconds off the previous record on this tough course. First male was Edward Pettitt (Vale Royal) in 16:11. 1763 finishers.