New Forest 10 mile, 2025

I'm putting my focus into the Hampshire Road Race League this year, something I haven't done before. It taking me to new races, which I love. Why on earth haven't I done this one before? It's an absolute cracker. Terrific scenery, great organisation and none of the razzmatazz of the half/marathon, an equivalent event based at the same venue.

In my quest to avoid Lyndhurst I ended up taking a particularly circuitous route to New Park. I didn't have a lot of time to register, pin on my number, find the loo and get warmed up. I wasn't feeling a lot of fire in my belly.

I focused on nailing a sensible pace at the start and kept to 3:51, which was OK but was nevertheless the fastest km of the race. I was happy to pull past John Wheatley. After about 4k we were on the Rhinefield Road; high ground with stonking views but a testing headwind. Then into the Ornamental Drive, always a pleasure. The sun was shining, we were out of the wind, and everything was bathed in autumnal gold. I was loving it.

The 'water feature' at the halfway point hadn't materialised this year. Most of the course was gravel track and pretty decent underfoot. Into the second half, I found myself slowly chewing my way through the order and picking people off. The cumulative pace figure on my watch moved from 4:00 to 3:59, helped by a long gradual downhill section which I tried to maximise. There were a couple of spicy hills following this where I took out a couple more weary souls. Then back into New Park, and a push to the finish line.

That's not an ideal arm swing

My recorded time was 1:04:36. I was 51st overall and 9th in the M50 category. Here are my stats. I was delighted to have hit a negative split for the race. It was all sunshine and smiles at the end, with no immediate rush to find warm layers. 

Top-notch race memento

Hursley 10k, 2025

Good old Hursley 10k. I did this in its first year in 2010, and then every year except 2014 (injured) and 2016 (in Ireland) that decade. No race in 2020 (pandemic obvs) and it's now back.

My friend Alan Graham tipped me off about this race; after all, he and I were both featured on the sign-up webpage. 

I rely on Alan starting ahead of me... I usually catch him after a mile or so

The ground was firm and conditions were perfect, so I opted for road shoes. There were plenty of friendly faces there. Doing a warm-up, I realised there were plenty of cowpats to avoid in the start and finish field.

Setting off, I found myself in about ninth place. Perfect. Off the initial field and I passed Alan as we moved on to the (longer than I remembered) tarmac section before heading into the woods, which is where the race properly begins. Lots of hills - nothing too drastic, but steady wars of attrition which are hard work, but in which I reckon I can gain a competitive edge.

Gradually I moved up the field. 'You're fifth', a marshal told me at one point. In the distance I could see number 4, and I focused on closing the gap. There was a decent 50m hill between 5.5 and 7 km where I made a lot of ground, and I took him on the downhill after this.

It was then a full-on push to the finish with no one in sight, but mindful of potential late challengers. Luckily, there were none and I crossed the line in 40:57 chip time in fourth place. And 1st M50 to boot. Here are the stats.

Everything had gone as well as I could have expected. I had maintained my top-ten finisher record and I had felt strong. I'd run this in 38:29 in 2019, possibly my most successful racing year, but results like that seemed (a) impossible and (b) immaterial today.

Winning geezers, M50 and M60 respectively