Last weekend, Darren Hesbrook-Edwards made his post-injury return to racing by smashing his 5-mile PB by more than 4 minutes at the Ipstones 5-Miler race in North Staffordshire, his first race since October 2021. Taking place on the Staffordshire Moorlands, this multi-terrain race is very undulating, with some steep hills thrown in, including a “tortuous” uphill finish. 

Darren during the race

As well as his return to racing and new PB, Darren was also celebrating his 52nd birthday, and beat that number too, with his 47th place finish (out of a total of 195 runners). Having run a time of 39 minutes, 28 seconds at the Staffs Knot 5 (a similarly hilly race that takes place on Cannock Chase) five years ago, Darren clocked a time of 34:59 to set his new PB for the distance.

Darren with his medal after the race