Hot on the heels of last week's 24 hour race came another race, this time in the shape of the Newmarket 10k. This has been a regular in my race calendar since 2017. It has added significance as this was the race that was previously run in the name of my friend Sophie's brother Marcus, who passed away in February 2016. Despite the name reverting back to the Newmarket 10k it will always be the Marcus Gynn 10k to me.
As well as the connection to the race, it is a brilliant race in its own right. If you are looking for a flat, fast, 10k for a PB you are out of luck. It is a challenging, undulating test. This year was my 6th time doing the event and so I had no excuse for not knowing every inch of the course.
The first half is all about trying to slow yourself down. The course is predominantly downhill in this section, the occasional bump up but definitely with a net downhill. The race finishes back where it starts and so what goes down must go up and boy does it go up in the run in.
I tried to run this race by feel but was keeping an eye on my heart rate, when it hit 170 BPM I really made an effort to dial back the pace. I think I made a pretty decent effort at measuring my efforts but despite that my first 4km splits got progressively slower.
1km - 4:59
2km - 5:26
3km - 5:34
4km - 5:43
I did manage to arrest that decline in the 5th km and ran 5:29 to go through halfway in 27:11.
I was struggling to find an appropriate target for this race, I knew I should run quicker than an hour but how much quicker? I had done a 10k in 54:28 the weekend before the girls were born in 2017 and I felt that was too quick for me, despite my recent 5k time of 24 minutes indicating I should run a 10k in about 50 minutes flat. My training had me running ok at 5k, but my performance worsens the longer the distance and I thought even 55 minutes was ambitious.
The downhill kept coming into the second half and allowed me to sustain the pace with km's 6 and 7 being 5:38 and 5:32. The fun stopped in km's 8 and 9 though with the two significant climbs on the course. The first coming immediately after the final water stop, when fit I think I will refuse the water and just hit the hill and push on. As it was I took the water, decided to walk briefly to drink, with the plan to then get back to running. The plan failed and I took some short walk breaks.
I got talking to a Haverhill runner at this point, and he was miffed and swore never to do this race again. I assured him we were over the worst of it, which technically we were, but in the haze of exhaustion I had forgotten the second hill we would have to tackle prior to the finish.
He went ahead, I tackled that second hill as best I could with some further walk breaks. Once over it though I managed to catch up Haverhill and he said he might as well have stuck with me. He got slightly ahead of me and I was calling out 500m to go, 400m to go, for him but also to gee myself up for the run in to the finish. However well or badly the race has gone I can always find a kick for the final run to the finish on the grass and this year was no different. I took over a couple of runners on the run to the line. Haverhill and I got in a good sprint but he pipped me to the line. I finished in 56:29 in 135th place out of 206 runners. It is always a strong field, given it is very much a club run and so decent finish positions are always hard to come by.
Post race it is all a bit of a confused picture. I had a lovely weekend, I thoroughly enjoyed the race and have been buzzing ever since. Yet I am disappointed to have walked for almost 3 minutes and to have not run 1.5 - 2 minutes faster. The progress I am making should still be enjoyed though as these Newmarket 10k times show:
2017 - 50:15
2019 - 1:01:26
2022 - 1:09:07
2023 - 1:00:51
2024 - 1:00:04
2025 - 56:29
There is still plenty of work for me to do across all race distances but a start has been made and to have gone significantly under the hour mark despite having walked for 3 minutes that should be cause for celebration.
The heart rate data indicates I probably didn't have a whole lot more to give. An average HR of 168 with a high of 190. 10 minutes of tempo, 40 minutes of threshold and 5 minutes of anaerobic.
I am hoping next year I can return to Newmarket and get myself under 50 minutes and a course best. 2026 is shaping up to be a good and busy year of racing.
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