On Sunday, Neil Fairbrother of Newport & District Running Club took part in the inaugural “Derwent Runner 4”, a 4-mile race that Derwent Runners, a running club based around Derby, hosted to mark their 40th anniversary. Starting and finishing at The County Ground, home to Derbyshire County Cricket Club, this flat, multi-terrain race takes in two laps of what used to be Derby Racecourse, behind the cricket stadium, but since 1939, when the Second World War put a stop to horse racing, never to return, it has been simply known as “Racecourse Park”.
In a twist, this race contained a “race within a race”, in the form of “The Derby Mile”. As runners passed the 3-mile point and entered the final mile of the race, they started the timer on a secondary, mile-long race, for which a separate set of results were published. This presented an interesting choice for runners – optimise pace for the 4-mile race, or save themselves for 3 miles and go for a quicker time in the final mile? A quick glance at the results showed a big range of different choices between all the runners!
198 people took part, and Neil finished 46th overall in the 4-mile with a time of 28 minutes, 10 seconds, whilst recording the 30th fastest mile, in 6 minutes, 38 seconds. He said afterwards: “I made the choice to run “comfortably hard” (probably round 10k race pace) for the first three miles, then see how I felt. I tried to up my pace for the final mile, and overtook quite a few people, finishing much higher up in the Derby Mile standings than in the 4-mile race! I didn’t have anything left in the tank as I crossed the line, so I know I gave it my all out there. It was nice to run on the outfield of the cricket ground for the start and finish, and interesting to hear about the history of the place – we were told we were making history as the first people to race on the site since 1939!”
Newport & District Running Club 