5th July 2025

Feeling ready for it, hundreds of runners in suitably bejeweled outfits descended upon Manchester’s Wythenshawe Park on Saturday 5 July for the Swiftathon  – a Taylor Swift themed race with 5k and 10k options.

It’s fair to say that this wasn’t a particularly serious “race.” With the 5k involving three laps of the course and the 10k involving six – dodging children, dancers, music “stations” and walkers on the narrow paths throughout – only the most fearless could attempt to actually get going and make sparks fly.

Proceedings began with a Taylor tribute act, who showed off her style with no less than five costume changes, before we gathered under the red gantry to shake it off and get started.

“You need to calm down”, I told myself as I set off at sub-7-min mile pace. The aim was to try and get away from the pack and get myself some blank space – but given the lap situation, within a few minutes I was behind a wall of walkers.

Realising at that point that trying to race this thing would only make for a cruel summer, I decided instead to breathe, sing along, and enjoy the fun (can confirm I spent one of the laps singing every word to I Can Do It With a Broken Heart). I went through halfway in about 22 minutes, to realise I was being very closely followed by a girl in full Reputation outfit (I’d gone for 1989) who was racing faster than a getaway car.

Happily, I managed to tolerate it and hold her off – dodging ice cream vans, trees and lots of children in fancy dress – to finish in 44:02; first lady and fourth overall (there was some confusion in the results, where they’ve got me as having run the 5k rather than the 10k, but my Strava knows all too well I did the full thing).

A serious race, this was not.

But the kids were enchanted – and I’ll admit it, I was too. Guilty as sin.

Strider results