Now in its 3rd year, this scenic, undulating 6.5 mile off-road race around the beautiful Croome Park saw 240 runners from 21 different clubs in attendance with great atmosphere on the day. The weather was cold but sunny, with course conditions extremely tough and muddy from the heavy rain over the previous days.

Bart Thomas (21) from the Black Pear Joggers was 1st home, winning the race in a time of 41:29, while in the male veterans category, Stuart Pearson (43) from Bournville Harriers was 1st back in 42:21. First woman home was Linda Howell (33) also from the Bournville Harriers, finishing in a time of 47:10 while female veteran Alison Carr (47, unaffiliated) finished in 51:15. These were all excellent times given the extremely challenging course and conditions.

Julia Williams, director of Premier Places in Worcester (one our our race sponsors) along with Stuart Wild from the Black Pear Joggers gave out the prizes for runners. All winners received a pair of running sunglasses sponsored by Actons Opticians in Worcester Cornmarket, and a voucher for Runaround Sports in Worcester, as well as free entry for a year to Croome National Trust. All finishers received a medal and goodie bag, which had lots of nice treats that went down extremely well with the runners.

A big shout out to the Malvern Joggers who have always really supported the race, with a record 47 runners this year. Thank you to all the fantastic people who volunteered to make the race a success, especially race secretary April Turner, who did a fantastic job organising the event.

Hope to see you again next year! If you ran the race, please leave some feedback on Runners World.

The results can be found here: Croome 2012 Race Results

More information about the race can be found on the Croome Race page.

Official photos will be available here in the next few days: http://www.racepictures.co.uk/
There are some photos on our Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/blackpearjoggers/
More from Chris Bomber Harris: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.10151133715323309&type=1
Also some more here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.420382784696086.96904.153712338029800&type=1