The Guy Fawkes 5

The Guy Fawkes 5 is a five mile road race in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire. Organised by Tewkesbury Running Club, Guy Fawkes 5 isn’t part of our club’s race series, but it is popular with members of the club. It is pretty competitive, with lots of fast runners locally taking part.

I wanted to take part for two reasons. The first was that I remembered it taking place last year, shortly after I joined the club. A lady from our club was first in her age category and I was in awe! At that point, I had no idea that I would go on to become first in my age category at three races – Dymock half marathon, Cirencester 10k and Bugatti 10k. The other reason was that a lady from our club asked me at the Linda Franks 5 mile race (in January) whether that was my five mile PB. I said it was because I’d never run a five mile race before. And she said: “You’ll have to see if you can beat it at Guy Fawkes 5”.

So I really wanted to beat my 37:03 from Linda Franks. On the one hand, it wouldn’t be easy. I know I felt like I was going to die at the end of that one. But I’d averaged about 7:30 minute/ mile pace for Linda Franks. And I’d run the first six miles of Stroud half marathon the week before at 7:41 pace. So surely I could manage 7:20 pace for a five mile race?! But I’d woken up with both hips aching and I’d had a bit of an upset stomach a couple of days previously, so who knew how it would go?

The Guy Fawkes 5 is based in the sports hall at Tewkesbury School. There was plenty of parking on site, with volunteers to make sure it all runs smoothly. Everyone picked up their numbers and timing chips (attached to your ankle, like you’ve just been let out of prison) in the sports hall. There was a safe bag drop, lots of cake and even a stall selling new sportswear. You could also donate your old trainers to charity (very useful to us!) and make a donation to Tewkesbury Foodbank – the race’s chosen charity.

There was only one problem with the sports hall. The lack of toilets!

Tewkesbury Running Club had ordered portable toilets and they hadn’t turned up. So 450 runners had to make do with handful of toilets inside the building and the queues were long.

I emerged from the toilet at 9:46am for a 10am start and found the sports hall virtually empty. The start line was a 10 minute walk away! We jogged it, which was a good warm up. The start was down a narrow road, just off the main road into Tewkesbury. Several times while we were waiting for the race to start, we had to move out of the way of cars. We were told there weren’t road closures for the race and that marshals had no power to stop or control traffic. Although I presume the road was closed for the actual start, because there were no cars appearing at the crucial moment.

We crossed the start line and my husband pulled away from me almost immediately. He was planning to run at a seven minute/ mile pace. Needless to say, I started a bit fast, as I always do. But I did my best to regulate my pace. I’d left Spotify to its own devices and it was playing me a very good selection of my favourite songs.

The route soon passed through the Wheatpieces housing estate, then onto a road which was fairly uneven – not much more than a farm track – out into the countryside. The course was largely flat. There was a bit of climb at about a mile and then climbs both times we crossed motorway bridges over the M5 – at about two and a half miles and again just before four miles.

I felt surprisingly comfortable and realised my pace had dipped a bit between two and three miles. I decided I needed to pick the pace up, as I was determined to beat my five mile PB. My watch showed I ran the first and third miles at 7:14 pace, the second mile at 7:30 pace and the fourth at 7:20.

It was nice to see a few club members out on the course, cheering us on. On the whole, there were very few spectators as it is a really rural course.

I could see my husband not too far ahead of me. He wasn’t getting any further away and I wasn’t getting any closer.

As we crossed the motorway bridge for the second time, I was very happy to see Tewkesbury Abbey in the distance. There wasn’t much more than a mile to go and I was feeling strong. I needed to pick the pace up and get that PB, because it was going to be close. I ran this final mile in 6:53 pace, which is parkrun PB pace for me.

About half a mile from the end, we were covering the same ground we’d covered on the way out (the route is a ‘frying pan’ shape). There were a couple of women in front of me that I wanted to beat – one looked to be a similar age to me and one was at a club considered to be a bit more elite than ours! I caught them up and I overtook them.

There was a 200m to go sign. I was closing the gap on my husband. I was overtaking other runners. I was going to get that PB!

I crossed the line in 36:28. That was 7:15 pace – five seconds per mile faster than I’d planned. I was really struggling for breath as I’d given it my all. I was just 11 seconds behind my husband. He was partly surprised to see me, but also thought he recognised the sound of my feet and breathing coming up behind him! I was third in my age category. The woman who’d won the category was five minutes in front of me and the woman who came second was over a minute ahead of me.

There was a bottle of water and a banana for all finishers at the finish line, then medals back at the sports hall.

We really enjoyed the Guy Fawkes 5. Will I be able to get another PB at Linda Franks 2025? It’s only two months away!