By: Neil Harrison.

Race Date: 27th April, 2025.

Many ventured south (London, Dronfield), west (Manchester) and in other directions on Sunday leaving me to venture east to Yorkshire Wildlife Park, Doncaster for their annual Run for Wildlife 10k.

As a family, we’ve enjoyed going to this park for many years and seen it double in size in that time. It is widely respected for its conservation efforts and animal rescue and welfare. If you don’t know about it, have a look at https://www.yorkshirewildlifepark.com/about-us/, I can highly recommend it if you like that type of excursion.

Following Tapirs, Lions and Rhinos, this year’s theme animal was the Okapi. If you’re not sure what an Okapi is, think of a cross between a deer, giraffe and zebra, then check the picture below to see if you were right. The theme is there to help raise awareness about wildlife and conservation and profits from race t-shirt sales go to the Wildlife Foundation charity, based at YWP – t-shirts are an extra on top of race entry.

The early start – 8:30 – meant an early rise, but as it was a hot day this turned out to be beneficial. There’s a limit to the number of runners, around 1300, so whilst it was busy getting into the FREE car park, as that’s where all cars are headed, everything seemed to go smoothly and was well organised, I guess they are used to this anyway. Collection of numbers and t-shirts is either Saturday mid-afternoon or on the day – nothing is posted out. The Hive – a shopping/dining area just outside YWP – was the location of the start which is right next to the car park, and there was plenty of space with grass areas, cafe/coffee shops and proper toilets! There’s also a hotel if you want to stay the night before the race.

I’d run a P.B. in the Sheffield Half five weeks ago, so I was relying on the dedicated training for that plus my regular training / Striders sessions leading up to this race rather than any specific 10k training. So, I had a P.B. goal (41:56 in the Sheffield 10k last year). It felt unlikely leading up to the race to be honest, but why not. My B goal was better than my pre-2019 P.B. (42:31 – I stopped racing then and have only run 3 races in the last 18 months). My C goal was sub 45 to match my Sheffield half pace.

I lined-up for the start in the 40-45 minute block. After a bit of a delay, we moved forward to the start line. Seems that the elites really were off elsewhere and I joked to the chap next to me that we were now in the sub 30 area – we were about 5 steps from the actual start line! Another short delay before they announced that the course was now clear and we were ready to go. Now clear? I wondered what they had to move to clear it – Giraffe? Rhino? Polar Bear? I decided to not think about it.

Then we were off. A lap of the car park on tarmac to start, quick pace check – 3:50m/km! Too fast as usual. Then it was on to a trail through a bit of woodland before hitting the park paths (concrete, loose shale or a mix of both) and the animals.

First up was Point Lobos and the Atlantic Forest, skirting the Sea Lions, Maned Wolves and Tapir – they were either too far away to see or still in bed! Then on through the Himalayan Pass (which is a lot flatter than the real thing I would imagine), passing the Red Pandas (which are always hard to spot anyway).

At the 2k mark, into Ethiopia with the Gelada “old world monkey” were up and about on top of the hill watching. Probably wondering why all these people weren’t stopping to watch them fight, groom and generally lark about.

Across the bridge to the older part of the park and Into Africa, passing the big names of Tiger, Giraffe and Rhino. Again, mostly absent, but I was maintaining a good pace and feeling better than expected, so I was paying more attention to my Garmin than Zebra and Wallaby.

Within the blink of an eye, we left Africa and arrived in the Arctic at Project Polar, where the Polar Bears were awake! One was by the fence cheering us on…well, at least making us pick up the pace in case he decided to break out for a snack – we’d be like Jelly Babies to him!

Then it was into Lemur Woods and a new surface – bark chippings. My super shoes were definitely hitting the sort of ground they’d not hit before. Don’t think they were giving the same energy return they give on tarmac. But I’d decided to wear them anyway, my logic: it’s a race, wear your fast shoes.

Out of the woods and a lap round Lion Country took us to half way and the old park entrance. As the park isn’t quite big enough to house a full 10k, there was around 1.5k along the old entrance road to make up the distance. A little boring – how could it not be after what had gone before – but the gentle climb on the way out meant there was a longish downhill to get the pace going again. Then we turned a corner into a grass field. I think it was some sort of special “leg energy sapping grass”. Thankfully, this was only about 800m long before hitting the main park paths again and back Into Africa.

The next 1k or so was retracing the route back towards the start, finishing with a 1k up and back down the car park (a little cruel) before a sprint, on grass, to the finish line.

Overall, the course was really nice to run and relatively flat – around 6 giraffes of climb (32m) – and the varied surfaces definitely made it interesting. The scenery and animals definitely give it a different feel to running through city streets (my usual type of race). Another different aspect was the lack of a crowd cheering the runners on, it was quite peaceful really and somewhat fitting with the surroundings. There were marshals along the way – both adults and kids – who were clapping and encouraging quite a lot. It felt a little like parkrun in this respect, so I made a point of thanking them all as I went by.

And, to cap it all, race entry also gets you into the park for the rest of the day (you can get discounted tickets for your spectators, too). As the cost of park entry is about the same as the race entry, you can view it as a lovely day out at animal watching after a free race.

As for my performance, well, my watch said 41:56 – equalling my PB. The official results have me at 42:01, not sure how they could be 6 seconds different but it doesn’t really matter because it was such an enjoyable race and there are plenty of other stats (I’m a “stato”) I can quote provided I don’t mention the lack of elites, such as:

• 33rd overall
• 3rd in my category (M55-59)
• 1k pace min/max only 10 seconds different
• First Strider
• Crossing the finish line alone – about 100m behind the person in front and 100m ahead of the one behind

Race winners were Matt Harman (M, unaffiliated) 33:14 and Rebecca Ward (W, ShUOC) 40:07.

Striders’ Results: