Race Date: Saturday 18th October 2025

Report by Martin Downham

Organised by HOBO Pace, The Dukeries 10 first caught my eye as it’s Race 11 in the 2025 Striders Trail Series. For some, or possibly many, the series is almost wrapped up so complicated calculations were required to assess whether attendance would make any significant difference on this year’s campaign. On the basis that “you just don’t know” I decided to give it a shot.

Unusually, this race is held on a Saturday and at a stated 10.8 miles it was going to be my longest ever trail run by quite some margin.  There was some post-race debate on the actual distance, but many of agreed that it was actually well over 11 miles. The briefing included mention of a mid-race diversion to avoid a flood thus adding distance to the advertised mileage.

Thankfully conditions on the day we’re dry whilst the pre-event weather had also been dry so the woodland trails and field edges were therefore dry and predicable underfoot. This would be a very different affair to last year when it was evidently very slippery.

For the early 9am start we gathered at the very rural Walesby Sports and Social Club somewhere in deepest Nottinghamshire. (Editor: It’s not actually that far from Clumber Park). Sat-Nav showed the start as “Newark” and about an hour or 16 miles away from Sheffield. The village is famous for its forest, part of which forms a 250-acre (1.0 km2) Scout camp site. There were rumours of public houses and a small Italian kitchen restaurant possibly somewhere nearby. The Scout camp (familiar to some) hosts international scouting festivals amongst other events.

Ample parking was available on the field behind the Clubhouse where race numbers were collected. The skilled observer would have spotted a large number of runners with dogs. I’ve not seen any mention of this but they all set off a few minutes ahead of us and we passed some of them on the way round. (Editor: the HOBO website advises that there was a canicross event starting at 8:55).

As the online description states this is a fairly flat 10.8 mile trail route with a mix of track, road side, woodland and farmland (often field edge) running. There a few wooden bridges to cross and a fair few trip hazards to look out for and avoid.

There a few road crossings, across open roads, not all of which are marshalled. For interest, the latter stages of the course pass near large pig and even larger chicken farms. It’s nice to see chickens actually running about outside and I suppose that’s what the chickens thought about us as we passed by. I counted at least three drinks/aid stations offering a variety of mix your own “booster drinks” on the loop. As it was still fairly fresh, I opted to keep moving and maintain what I would like to think of as “rhythm”.

Once the trail started to look familiar I had a hunch that the finish line was looming. A gathering in the distance confirmed this as did Strava which now showed 11+ miles. Overall my Strava showed 18km with 107m of elevation. Once finished, the fresh breeze forced me to the Clubhouse where hot drinks and biscuits were available. All runners also received a personalised engraved medal (possibly my first).

Overall, I would describe this as a low key event, held deep in the Nottinghamshire countryside. It’s a pleasant mixed route that was dry on the day. Flooding and slippery terrain in mid-October can (as last year’s runners will confirm) make this a very different and challenging event. Our thanks go to HOBO pace, who hosted this annual event and organise a number of other local races (up to 100 miles) in the county. Thanks also go to the helpful and supportive marshals at all the key junctions.

With trophies to 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd Male and Females but unfortunately no bling for Steel City on the day. First were Marlon Dunkley (Mansfield) 1:08:57 and Hannah Miller (Worksop) with a new course record of 1:14:12. Possibly a function of the dry conditions but still pretty good considering the diversion added distance.