Ella Preston (left) faced some challenging muddy conditions at the Regency 10k Run and was joined in the race by her sister Abby
Providing a plentiful serving of mud as well as some tarmac sections, the Wright Hassall Regency 10k Run was a nice one for Ella Preston to get her teeth into. The Newbold Comyn location in Royal Leamington Spa was a lovely scenic backdrop for the race which was sponsored by local law firm Wright Hassell. The proceeds from the event were used to help various causes in the area including community youth groups, school projects and the homeless.
When she’s not studying down in Bournemouth, Ella usually heads back up to her home city of Coventry so it wasn’t far to go for her to get to the race venue.
Ella has been working on her 10k times since the Round the Lakes summer special last June which she completed in 49:24. She went on to better that at the Great Bristol 10k with a 49:14 before the eclipsing that at the Boscombe 10k in November where she clocked a 48:47.
In February this year she managed to nail down a new PB of 48:06 at the RunThrough Southampton Running Festival so she’d done well to keep chipping away at it. With the first 5k being on grass and with the muddy conditions coming into play, she wasn’t likely to threaten her best time at the Regency 10k Run.
The Wright Hassall Regency 10k Run gets underway
Battling through it well though, she was going at around 8:30 pace for the first three miles despite a tough incline that started at about 1.8 miles and continued to about 2.4 miles. Accelerating to below 8 minutes per mile once she got onto the tarmac, Ella ran strongly for remainder of the race.
Completing the course in a time of 50:43 which put her in 395th place out of 1,549 participants. Out of the 691 females in the race, she came 60th so that was a decent result for Ella and she had fun doing it. Her average pace for the 8:12 minutes per mile.
Ella comes from a family of sporting siblings and her sister Abby was also running. She completed the course in 53:30, putting her in 541st place and 105th female in the rankings.
Ella ran well to earn her medal, as did her sister Abby
Frazer Knowles of Leamington C & AC was the race winner, getting round in 32:40, putting him well ahead of Andy Lawrence who was 2nd in 33:15. Ryan Baker of Kenilworth Runners came 3rd in 35:30.
Alice Belcher of Wellingborough AC was 1st female, getting round in 36:05 which put her in 9th place overall. Natalie Bhangal of Leamington C & AC was 2nd women, registering a time of 39:07 which put her 28th place overall.
It will be interesting to see of Ella can keep on the upward curve over the coming months and if she does, perhaps she’ll manage to knock even more time off her 10k best.