Organisers of this year’s Cirencester 10K on Wednesday 14th June – known as the ‘summer sizzler’ – are hoping that as many as 500 runners will line up at the start.

It is the third year that the race will have been held in the beautiful surroundings of Cirencester Park after it was previously staged in Westonbirt Arboretum.

Cirencester Athletics Club publicity officer Liza Darroch, who expects to be on a water station for the event, said: “It’s run in lovely parkland including up an avenue lined with majestic horsechestnuts. It is virtually all on tarmac but is traffic free.

“To have a road race with zero traffic is almost unheard of. You don’t hear a car, let alone see one.

“There are a few tiny off-road sections but the event still counts as a road race.”

As an evening run – the main event gets under way at 7.30pm, 45 minutes after a 3k race designed for juniors but open to all ages including accompanying parents.

The fact that the event is held just seven days before the longest day of the year means that even in a typically uninspiring English summer, conditions are likely to be on the warm side for the runners.

Not for nothing is it known as the ‘summer sizzler.’

“The last two years we’ve had gloriously warm balmy evenings which are great for everyone except the runners,” chuckled Liza.

“It’s not a course for PB’s, it’s one to enjoy.”

The event consists of two laps through Cirencester Park which means runners must tackle the steep climb known as Big Bertha twice.

“The finish line is just after Big Bertha,” said Liza. “Runners have a sprint to the finish line in front of the polo stand.”

There were 271 finishers at last year’s race and while Liza says the aim is to attract 500 runners to this year’s event she is realistic enough to know that 400 going to the start line would be a good number.

The club run a very successful Autumn 10k which has been going for years and years, and Liza said of the June date: “We need to get it established and that can take time. It doesn’t just happen overnight.”

Last year’s race was won by Stroud’s Jack Turner in a time of 34 minutes 21 seconds and he was followed home by Cirencester’s Adrian Williams, who was also first V40.

Williams also finds time outside his racing schedule to run the club’s thriving junior section. “We’ve got a waiting list for the juniors which is frustrating for everyone” said Liza. “The problem is we can’t find enough qualified coaches or even parents able to help.”

The organisers hope that about 100 youngsters aged from five to 16 will take part in the 3K on June 14.

One in particular, 10-year-old Henry Sheffield, has been marked out as potentially very good and his brother Archie is also rated highly.

Liza, meanwhile, admits that 10K races are not for her. Not that the 69-year-old has turned her back on running, far from it.

“I like long distances,” she said. “I like ultra marathons. I’m very old and very slow and the 10K is too fast for me.

“The nice thing about a long run is that if you come to a hill and don’t fancy it you can walk it!

“The other thing about a 10K is that you can’t have a chat because everyone is running so fast.”

Born in the Lake District, Liza moved to Cirencester in the mid-1970s and started running in the early 1980s.

When she spoke to the Local Answer she was preparing to take part in the Marlborough 33-mile race.

She moved to Cranham in 2009 and joked: “Now when I’m out training all I see are hills.”

Nevertheless, Liza has got to go some way to match the exploits of her partner Rupert Chesmore.

She said of the 59-year-old: “He does even sillier things. He’s planning to do 100 miles of the Offa’s Dyke although that still leaves him well behind Richard Hurdle who ran the whole of Offa’s Dyke which is something like 185 miles – it took a mere 72 hours!”