The usual restriction for Hayden Preston of not being able to compete yet in his hometown Sudbury 5 Mile race on Good Friday, as he is still only 13 and you need to be 15 for that distance, meant a train trip further afield to Victoria Park London and a 5km race in the park.

The course is known to be very flat and fast, however with the Half Marathon and 10km runners also on the same looped course, you know with over 1000 runners in all that you have to keep your concentration.

The plan to start on the front line was achieved, and Hayden started in a group of three that soon pulled away from the other runners. After a mile they were all still together, and the recent training allowed Hayden to maintain his pace with a minimal drop-off compared to the other two and he started to pull away by the 2km point.

With a time planned in advance and still on target at halfway, he was able to continue to push on his own, winning the race in a new U15 5km Club Record of 16:53, taking this away from the amazing Danny Millward from almost ten years ago.

This time has allowed him to update his Ipswich Twilight 5km entry in two weeks to the sub 17 race, where hopefully he may be able to use others around him to find a few more seconds.