Sunday 22 March saw 5,000 plus athletes gather under the blue skies and sunshine on Kings Road, Wilmslow, to participate in the Waters Wilmslow Half Marathon.
With a large number of marshals guiding the runners, water stations in strategic spots and thousands of spectators lining the course, this year's sell-out race was as well-organised and popular as ever.
Though asides the beautiful sunshine and records being broken in the elite women's competition, this year's 2015 Waters Wilmslow Half Marathon stood out for an entirely different reason – runaway horses joining the course.
While the elite runners were well on their way to being home and dry and some of the slower runners were reaching the four mile mark, many of the athletes met an unusual encounter, three loose horses dashing wildly through the pack.
Tom Hibbert, a race marshal, said the horses had ran past him on Davenport Lane.
"A lady got pushed over into a bush by one of the horses. Luckily she was okay. They managed to catch the horses at the end of the road", said 23-year-old Tom who marshals at the event for a local charity.
Being forced to one side through chants of "runaway horses" warnings and the sound of thundering hooves, the runners were equally as dumbstruck.
As were the spectators.
"I suddenly heard shouts of "watch out, horses!" as the animals galloped at some pace down the road. The runners dived to the side of the road to avoid them. I guess the horses were pretty scared too," said one race bystander.
Rumours are of course flying around as to how and why the horses had escaped.
"We got told that a runner had accidentally let them out when he went for a pee in a field," Tom Hibbert added.
Nick Bishop, Press and Media Officer for the Waters Wilmslow Half Marathon, shed some light on the story:
"My understanding is that the horses escaped from a field some four miles into the race. There is a suggestion that they also were seen by another group of runners much further into the race."
However, Nick explained how this was not the case as the course is an "Out... A loop... And Back", lollipop-style race. The fact the loop is at both four and 10 miles means that the horses were not seen twice but by runners who were running at different speeds and six miles apart in terms of distance covered.
"Marshals quickly got them under control and back in the field. As far as we understand only one runner collided with a horse and we have been in email contact with the person concerned," Nick Bishop added.
Despite fugitive horses disrupting the course, running through the Cheshire countryside, accompanied by glorious sunshine and friendly marshals and spectators on every corner, the 2015 Waters Wilmslow Marathon was a real pleasure to participate in.
Guest post by Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead, a freelance journalist and copywriter in the High Peak. Gabrielle also took part in the Waters Wilmslow Half Marathon and had to jump out of the way of the runaway horses.
Photo: Race marshal Tom Hibbert.
