Race Date: 09 February 2025

Race Report from John Kilcoyne

For some reason I had never done this race before. I had been told it was a reasonably fast course though probably not your traditional PB kind of race unless you had a soft pb. Until recent years it wasn’t a ratified course so didn’t appear on Power of 10. It would usually fall the week after Percy Pud, normally the same date as the final South Yorkshire League Cross Country so it’s never been on the radar for me personally. The 2024 edition however would unusually fall on the third Sunday of December so the plan was to pace at Percy Pud, run the Cross Country at Graves the week after and then run hard at Bolsover the week after that.

Unfortunately, storm Darragh had other ideas. Due to the high winds English Heritage couldn’t guarantee the safety of the runners at Bolsover Castle which was to be the race village so the event was postponed. To North Derbyshire Running Club’s credit they communicated things swiftly and said the race would hopefully be rescheduled soon and within a few days we had been given a new date for 9th February 2025. This was to be the week after Dewsbury 10k which definitely is a PB course if you execute well on the day so I’d decided to target Dewsbury as planned and see how things were for the week after depending on how Dewsbury had gone. As it happened, Dewsbury went well for me (36:06) so I decided to use Bolsover as a training run so as not to have too much of a break in training after tapering a little for Dewsbury.

Five of the first six Steel City to finish train together including relative newcomer Benjamin Naisbitt. He was chomping at the bit to race this in December and has been flying in training so seeing him on the start line we were all keen to see how he went.

I had travelled with a friend from Clowne RR and we got there an hour before the off and had a walk in to the castle grounds. There seemed to be only a small number of toilet cubicles but strangely barely any queues which was welcome so we were in and out quickly and able to get ready for a good warm up. It wasn’t as cold as it had been on Saturday but we’d had local power cuts where I live and had no heating or hot water since Friday evening so maybe my thoughts would be different to others. There was a stiff breeze and most stories I’d been told of the race described a headwind on the way back of the looped course. (Editor: Correct if there’s the usual SW wind). However, I was told early on that instead we’d get a tailwind today on the run for home.

The race starts in the Castle grounds which was a little slippery underfoot but it’s only a short stretch so nothing too troublesome. After running through the town centre the race went onto closed country roads heading towards Clowne. After about 2km there’s a 90 degree turn into a headwind which, on a straight road, lasted for around 2.5km. This took us almost to halfway so it was a relief when we took a left towards Oxcroft village and started making our way back towards Bolsover.

This section is quite open compared to the way out but the wind wasn’t really an issue, though we didn’t get (or notice?) the tailwind we were hoping for either. We had a handful of cars to contend with in the second half too. Most slowed down as we passed but we were told that all the roads were supposed to be closed so I’m not sure what happened here. Net downhill to halfway, the course overall is undulating but there isn’t anything too taxing really. The ups and the downs are all relatively short lived and Strava gives an elevation gain of 201ft. A couple of twists and turns in Bolsover centre and then we were back into the Castle grounds for the home straight. This again was rather slippery and I wouldn’t have liked to have been going full tilt pushing for a PB for that final 100m or so. Overall though I’d say it’s a good race and being only twenty minutes down the road I will hopefully do it again. I’d regretfully opted out of the race shirt which was a long sleeved tech shirt so for my £15.65 I got race entry, finishers medal, water and a handful of chocolate bars at the finish so no complaints from me. (Editor: Over the last thirty years there have been a number of iterations of this event, originally known as the Coalite 10k. This year’s route is more or less the same as the most recent version which started/finished at Bolsover School).

In general the event has had favourable reviews particularly how cool it was to finish in the castle grounds with the opportunity to explore it more fully after the race. First Steel City home was Ben Naisbitt who said that he was a little disappointed feeling “leggy” from the start and unable to get going. He still ran a personal best and to be disappointed with sub 35 suggests that there is more to come. (Editor: Ben also needs to race more often). It was good to see Sarah Allcard racing again, leading the ladies home but still disappointed with her 44:13. Other reports include Tom King who was spurred into action when John caught him at 8km but holding on to finish just a couple of seconds behind and well within his 38 minute target time. Malcom Baggeley advises that after two weeks off with a knee injury he wasn’t expecting much but was pleased to finish without too much discomfort and can return to marathon training.