PARTY TIME AS POPULAR CHARITY RACE CELEBRATES 40TH BIRTHDAY

The JCB Lakeside 5 and Fun Run was first run in 1983 when just 95 competitors completed the course around the company’s picturesque World Headquarters at Rocester. The event has grown in popularity and already there are more than 140 competitors signed up for the 40th anniversary race on Thursday, July 13, with up to 400 expected. The event will continue the tradition of raising money for JCB’s nominated charity, the NSPCC, for its work in Staffordshire.

Ioan Evans | JCB Business Degree Apprentice

JCB Warranty Manager Georgia Thorley, aged 26, of Cheadle, is also running it for the second time with her partner and fellow JCB employee Eddie Deaville. She said: “I signed up last year thinking it was a 5k race, not 5 miles but despite that I had a great time! I want to get more into running and I am going to use this year’s event as a kick start to getting fitter. The event really is good fun.”

Also on the starting line will be two former JCB employees who have competed in every single one of the races since 1983: Charles Bevan, 76, of Abbots Bromley and one of the event founders, Mick Grindey, 61, of Uttoxeter.

Mick said: “It is incredible that this event started 40 years ago from such small beginnings and has grown into such a popular fixture in the JCB calendar. The pressure is on me now to keep on running until the 50th anniversary of the race!”

The 2.2-mile fun run takes place around the JCB grounds and country lanes at 7.15pm. The undulating five-mile JCB Lakeside 5 takes in the glorious JCB grounds around the World HQ at Rocester before heading on to the local village roads and finishing on the JCB sports fields. It also starts at 7.15pm. To register for this year’s events, visit

www.avtiming.com/jcb5