Race Date: 14 December 2025

Popular with those who couldn’t run Percy Pud the week before, this race has a long history dating back to 1986. Race HQ is within the 16th Century sham Bolsover Castle with the usual queues for the portaloos with, at 9:15, a long queue for the bag drop although this had dissipated by 9:25. Another strategy might be to simply jog the half mile from the main car park at Morrisons to the start in an old top and stash this behind a bin or similar to be retrieved later. Race instructions kindly highlighted that the A632 from Chesterfield to Bolsover was closed due to roadworks at Long Duckmanton together with details of road closures in and around the town for the race itself that would be in place from 9:15. Except that the road closed signs were already up by 8:30 so that those approaching from the south had to circumnavigate the town in order to get to the car park. Those who left early therefore saved themselves a little bit of stress.

With various route changes over the years, this iteration starts and finishes on a muddy track at the back of the castle before heading north through the town and a rural landscape with few houses along the way. The course is basically downhill for 5km before it turns south again with corresponding payback for that early descent. A gusting tailwind from the south/south west resulted in an unpleasant headwind on the return which runs along the Magnesian Limestone escarpment. This offers fine views of the M1 to the west but accentuates the unfavourable conditions. Some some wag did however suggest that conditions were fine for running although it wasn’t raining which was a bonus given the current weather and at least it wasn’t postponed like last years event which fell foul of storm Darragh.

What strategy to employ on a course like this? After squeezing through the mucky and narrow start, it’s important to make full use of the terrain and conditions, in this case downhill with a tailwind for 5k. The danger can be to go out too fast and run into oxygen debt too soon, especially when running uphill into the wind coming back. It can end badly if there’s not enough left in the tank. Not everyone had a bad day however with some decent times being posted with, according to Pof10, Karen Bradley running a pb.

Winners were Liam Watson (Mansfield) 33:01 whilst Hayley Gill (Mansfield) ran 36:49 only having recently celebrated her fiftieth birthday. There were 1048 finishers the last of which crossed the line in 1:29:13. Link to full results Bolsover 10k 2025 Results Photos on Facebook from Craig Linacre Photography