29.9.24

Sheffield 10km 2024 was held on Sunday 29th September (a memorable date for me as happened to be on my birthday!).

Further to the post-race pub chat (at the Forum, in the ‘usual spot’), where it was gently suggested that since I ran the 10k on my birthday I would be the obvious choice to write the race report (my first one!), here it goes…

In completely honesty, I nearly didn’t sign up for this race, it goes all round my local roads and I found it hard to justify forking out the dosh for it when I run the majority of the route pretty frequently! However I’m so glad I did for the following reasons:

1. The support and atmosphere along the route (particularly Eccy Road) was fantastic! Every ‘Go Strider’ cheer was gratefully received. The usual camaraderie between Striders was also present in bucket loads.
2. I ran my first ever sub 50min 10km – Birthday PB whoop whoop!
3. Ian Black bought me a post-race birthday shandy 😀

So let’s rewind back to the beginning of the morning with the pre-race duties…

As is tradition, there was a mass congregation of Striders at Barkers Pool for the Striders’ photo, on the steps outside City Hall, meticulously arranged by Helen Royles-Jones. She has undoubtedly got skills not only in photography, but also in herding runners as she managed to organise four different running clubs for photos in the space of 30 mins! Steel City Striders’ slot was 9am and bang on time! Amazing! She also captured some fantastic shots on the route itself – thank you Helen as always for your time and skills.

Onto baggage drop, which was fairly uneventful (not causing delays  to anyone as far as I was aware), then onto Arundel Gate for the start… I was eyeing up the 50min pacers, as (not so) secretly hoping for a sub 50min finish. Stood with a few fellow Strider friends there was the usual slightly nervous anticipation. We were all pretty happy about the running conditions – cool and dry. Unlike the day of the Sheffield half marathon, there was no real wind to contend with, and even the sun made an appearance whilst waiting for the start.

The start of the race was delayed by around 12 mins according to my Strava entry, giving us ample time for the obligatory start time selfies! Where I was stood, no-one could really hear if there was a particular reason for the delay- the main MC had a megaphone yet still couldn’t be heard over the mass of runners.

At 9.42am we were off! Although it took a while to properly get going. In the words of Josie Hill (as documented on her Strava), the start was ‘very peopley’, which may have cost people some time, although may have been a blessing for myself and others that are usually guilty of setting off too quickly!

As in previous years the route started at Arundel Gate near the Theatres in the City Centre and then continues out along Ecclesall Road. The first part is the same as the Half Marathon held earlier in the year. However instead of the route carrying on up Ecclesall Road South, runners turn onto Rustlings Road before hitting the main hills that surround Endcliffe Park (Oakbrook Road, Riverdale Road being the main inclines). Audible sighs of relief can be heard from runners as they finish the ‘hilly bit’ and are rewarded with the very downhill section of Brocco Bank and a continuing steady slight downhill back into the City Centre before finishing at Arundel Gate (which always seems further away than expected!).

For those who live for stats – Overall the course has 128m elevation gain. There were 4709 runners who took part, of which 115 were from Steel City Striders RC. The race was won by Hallamshire Harrier Andrew Heyes, who knocked a full min off his own record from 2019 to set a new course record with an incredible time of 29:44! First female was Martha Hanby (unaffiliated according to chip timing website) with a speedy time of 39:25. Fastest male Steel City Strider was Liam Brennan with 34:57 and fastest female Strider was Hannah Shillitoe with 41:21 chip time.

Chatting to other Striders after the race it seems there were a lot of PBs amongst us and there was a lot of post-race elation. However large-scale events like this are obviously not all about PBs etc. The race attracts thousands of runners, many of who run for Charity, and the support for these is absolutely brilliant. Strider Al Dalton ran for a very worthwhile charity this year, for adults with learning disabilities,  ‘Under The Stars’, and ran a very well-paced race with his goal time in mind. More importantly he raised vital funds for this relatively small local charity – Well done Al!

Also huge credit to all the official pacers (who seemed to mostly be Striders) who I’m sure helped countless other runners achieve their goal times.

Now another important bit – the goodie bag! Protein flapjack, squishes sweets (of which I ended up with double – thanks Kevin Wong!), Seabrooks crisps that Angharad and I gobbled up immediately, and of course the medal. I later learned that it connects with the other two 10km Run For All event medals (Nottingham and York). T-Shirt was extra ££,  slightly resentful that the ‘small’ is clearly a Men’s ‘small’ and therefore pretty big on me – why don’t these races do proper Women’s sizing as well as Men’s?? Maybe next year….

Anyway, conforming to another Striders’ tradition – ‘rehydration’ at the pub was absolutely necessary, and the post-race chat continued at The Forum on Division St for those that didn’t have to head straight off.

Overall a great morning out and actually a brilliant way to spend a birthday – loved spending time amongst a very friendly group of runners and the birthday cake that I indulged in later was completely guilt-free after running 10km! Perfect!

Strider results