Race Date 20 November 2022

Eight Striders completed this race with the spotlight falling on Abbie Pearse who ran a personal best of 1:00:28 in the process of breaking a club record that has stood since 1986, the year that Casualty, Yes Prime Minister and Lovejoy were first shown on T.V. and long before Abbie was born.

The course which starts and finishes at the Derby Arena, near Pride Park, and heads out towards Thulston and Elvaston before a three mile stretch back down the river path. The race is described as fast and flat and a potential pb course which certainly attracts a high class field but at this stage it’s best that Abbie takes up the story …….

“I had a last minute entry for the Derby 10 when a contact of mine at Matlock AC told me that I  could get free/half price for elite entry and you can’t say no to a race where you’ve been was classed as ‘elite’ just for the kudos that might bring. (Abbie is smiling at the moment but she’s always smiling anyway. ed.)  I had thought about aiming for 10 miles in 60 mins but that thought left my mind quite quickly when I thought about running at 6 min miles for that long and decided 61 minutes was much more manageable. We were told the course was a PB one so got angry when there was 5k on trail with puddles and stones from miles 6-9. I hung on to a nice man who gave me some words of encouragement from mile 8 when it started to get really hard. Over the moon with my time and will go for sub 60 next time!!…” and Abbie will surely get an invite to run next year.

There’s no doubt that this was an elite field. Winner was Ben Connor (Derby/GB) who ran at the marathon in Japan last year. He finished his ten miles in 49:32 before trotting round the course again at a similar pace. The first woman was Charlotte Taylor (no club stated but suspect is GB International out of Peterborough) in 57:51.

Seven other Striders who completed the race and in normal circumstances Rob Byers 53:29 would have been top of the bill.