Race Date: Sunday 17th August 2025

Background

It’s no mistake that the quickest athletes in the club tend to train together. As Malcolm Baggaley’s group  demonstrated at the Evensplits York 5k earlier in the month, the benefits of training in a squad with shared objectives can be immense. The phrase “The sum of the parts is greater than the whole” usually applies to team sports but can also fit athletics which is ordinarily an individual affair.

At the end of May, marathon season had finished but this group (ostensibly Tuesday but they all do track on Thursday as well) needed a target race to keep training focussed. With a large group who compete across the track, fell and roads it’s difficult to find a common denominator but the popular vote settled on Newark. With four also running Autumn marathons the schedule needed tweaking a little although Newark was ideally placed as a tune-up race whilst it’s (not really) surprising how those on a marathon trajectory often run pb’s at other distances on the way. With a discount for group entries of six or more, twenty four signed up for the race although with changing priorities, sickness and injury only sixteen actually started the race.

Race Day

Dating back to 1982 this race was postponed last year with major roadworks on the route and no viable alternative available. After being organised by local clubs the race was also taken over by Run Through, an experienced organisation who promote races all across the country. Demonstrating commitment, with a 9:00am start some of the group booked an Airbnb for Saturday night to avoid a 5:30am alarm call. The lack of official parking, available in 2023, added an extra layer of difficulty to travelling on the Sunday morning.

Standing on the parched grass at the event village the sun was beating down with temperatures set to rise substantially over the next couple of hours; Newark often proves to be a hot one. After being mustered at Sconce and Devon Park into rough finishing times competitors are marched to the actual start about half a mile away. Not a race to be late for.

The Race

This event is billed as being flat but opinion was otherwise. “…anyone who says that’s a flat course is lying. I always felt like I was running up hill” as Emily Green put it. With the sun, there was a choice between following the racing line or chasing any shade that was available and although some cloud cover began to develop after forty to fifty minutes all this did was put a lid on it, driving up the humidity. The breeze also became more evident in the second half. Before the race there was much discussion about pace with Annie Chambers trying to get one of the lads to look after her. One agreed on a 84 minute target but he couldn’t keep up. As it turned out, with three of the faster lads within sight on the long straight roads, she always had someone to chase and ended up smashing her own pb by nearly two minutes. A common theme with the lads was to set out at pb pace but comments such as “..didn’t have the beans to back it up”, “…not anywhere near fit enough” and “Hot. Went out at pb pace but faded” sums up how it went for them quite well. Having to make a pit stop in the bushes (the course is predominantly rural) didn’t help one lad either.

There was one dnf. One of the girls, despite a solid training block, had been unwell prior to the race so took a view and went out at 5k pace for three miles before simply jogging back to the start. Much better than just aimlessly running around Newark for ninety minutes although quite a surprise for those not in on the plan. There was nearly another dnf as, with things going downhill rapidly, the sensible thing would have been to step off the course but there was no choice but to carry on as the bag drop was at the finish.

It wasn’t failure for everyone with one of the lads getting a “little pb” whilst Emily discovered that a 5k pb does convert smashing her own best for 13.1 miles although that was set at Eyam which is hardly flat. A pb too for Sarah-Jane Brown although she didn’t have a previous official mark for the distance but now has something to work with. Annie felt that she was in control until eight miles just hanging on for the remainder uttering some unladylike words at the Bambi legs inducing wood chippings encountered just before the finish but obviously doing well enough and beating all of the other women by over a minute with a pb into the bargain. Caroline Brock was third, first F40 and also broke her existing F40 club record. Frances Roberts’ was first F35 almost overshadowed by all the bling elsewhere. Nice trophy for first and third but no prizes.

Runthrough Newark Half Marathon 2025 Results