This Wednesday saw the first of the East Midlands Grand Prix races take place at Silverstone with two laps of the track making up the 10K route. Six club members went up to the circuit on the Northants and Bucks border.

It was a muggy night, despite the strong breeze and steady drizzle and the order of the day was to tuck in and try to keep an even pace all the way. In her first ever 10K Bianca Inchley did exactly that as she aimed for running six minute kilometres all the way and tracked Helen Crossland who has already achieved consecutive personal bests over the distance this year.

Fred Watt, on his recovery from the MK marathon was out to get somewhere near his time from Flitwick last month while Pete Mackrell and Joe Hurley were hoping for a solid time two weeks after London. The other runner was Tom Inchley who has started running properly again now that Bianca is starting to get enthusiastic and he's got his new orthotics.

With 1100 people in the race it is by far the biggest of the series and has a big variation in standards. The first lap was kept pretty compact as large groups worked together around the track, but as the race got stretched in the second half it became harder for everyone working into the wind and rain.

Pete was first man home on the night although a few beers over the weekend didn't help his overall performance and he was a touch disappointed with his 37:17, but he still managed 45^th place. Tom Inchley was hoping to get under 40 minutes on his return to racing but slipped a minute on his second lap and crossed the line in 40:28.

On the pacing front, Joe Hurley did the best job on the night as most people were considerably slower on the second lap whereas he actually picked up the speed and managed a negative split to finish in 41:12. Fred had the same battles as Pete and Tom running in the deteriorating conditions but finished a very creditable fifth V60 in 46:19.

On the ladies front, buoyed on by her recent performances Helen started off at sub 60 pace with Bianca just behind but sticking exactly to her pre race tactics. Half way around the second half Bianca managed to keep her pace going well enough to sneak past Helen and finished delighted with 60:07. Meanwhile was equally pleased with her 61:11 as this was a third straight PB too.

The next race is next Wednesday in Rugby, but a more likely option for club members is the Bedford 6 on Tuesday 22nd May.