Paula Radcliffe joins Worcester families for fun run

Paula’s Families on Track - founded by running legend Paula Radcliffe - sees teams work together to run 10k in a relay.

The event took place on Pitchcroft this morning (Saturday, September 16) ahead of the Worcester City Half Marathon and other races happening tomorrow.

Ethan and Ted Montgomery ran as sumo wrestlers (Image: NQ)

Family members taking part were able to choose between three course lengths for each lap they complete - either 1 kilometre, 500 metres or 250 metres - and kept going until they’d completed 10k in total.

Runners were given T-shirts and medals for taking part, as well as spot prizes of woollly hats.

Some dressed as dinosaurs, cave people and sumo wrestlers - and even Paula was persuaded to wear a unicorn inflatable for some of her laps.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, the team featuring former Olympian and three-time London Marathon winner Paula were the first to cross the line.

Paula Radcliffe with son Raph and Joanne, Ben, Milly and Poppy Oliver (Image: NQ)

The team also included Paula’s son Raph and the Oliver family from Worcester - mum Joanne, dad Ben and sisters Poppy and Milly.

They’d won a social media competition to have the honour of teaming up with Paula.

Joanne said it was Poppy’s love for running and the success she’s had in races despite undergoing operations on a cleft palate that led them to be chosen.

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Paula said: “Worcester is always such a great event - people get dressed up, all the families really get involved and we have a great time.”

She also revealed how another running legend helped come up with the idea for the event.

Penny, Oscar and Theo Farmer went pre-historic for the race (Image: NQ)

“The idea came after I did a 10k with my daughter and we did it as a relay - I did 7k and she did 3k,” Paula said.

“It was really good to do it together, then I was talking to Steve Cram and he suggested doing the laps in a loop with a central bit in the middle.

“Taking part is always really good fun and Worcester is always brilliant, even though it’s a tough time of year with the children being back at school.”