Minchinhampton 10k

The Minchinhampton 10k race is 93% road and 7% grass. It starts on the common and descends sharply where it meets Windmill Road. The route then takes runners through a narrow lane in the centre of Minchinhampton. A few undulations later and you pass HRH Princess Anne’s home and past the golf course. Go up Butt Street for the final hill and enter the common at Blue Boys Corner with a grass sprint finish.

Minchinhampton is a small hilltop town in the Cotswolds which was once prosperous with the production of cloth. The 600 acre common was granted to the people of the town in the 16th century. The National Trust bought the common before the Second World War to control quarrying.

About the race
When: – Sunday 11 March 2018 @ 10.00am

Where: – Minchinhampton Academy, School Lane, Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire, GL6 9BP

Cost: – £23.00

Organisers website: – iamoutdoors.uk

Race Aces
Lovely route around Minchinhampton country lanes.

Cute medal and matching t-shirt.

There’s also a ‘Mini Minch’ which is a shorter race which many children take part in.

Race Unlaces
No parking directly on the site, but there was adequate parking around the surrounding streets. This wasn’t ideal when we were looking to leave because obviously everyone was trying to leave at around the same time.

Headphones are not permitted due to running on open roads and at times the roads had heavy traffic.

If you’re not into that kind of thing, this course was of an undulating nature.

My Race Stats:
Time: 1:02:20 | Pace: 9:53 | Mile splits: 9:56, 9:16, 8:42, 11:26, 9:57, 10:06, 2:25
Position: 280/471 | Gender position: 104/257

Total runners: 471 | Fastest Male: 35:20 | Fastest Female: 42:49 | Slowest: 1hr 52

Organisers’ Social Media Information
Facebook: I am Outdoors | Twitter: @allrunners

Distances from Major Cities
London: 2hr 17min ~ 104 miles | Birmingham:  1hr 32min ~ 79 miles | Bristol: 53min ~ 31 miles | Cardiff: 1hr 17min ~ 62 miles | Exeter: 1hr 57min ~ 108 miles

Next event: 2019

Overall star rating: 

Other events from the organiser: Bisley 10k, Cranham Beast, Nailsworth Mills

Conclusion
I got to race HQ nice and early to pick up my bib number and I’m glad that I did because it soon got pretty busy. There were portaloos in the school car park and they were all empty too – hallelujah it’s going to be a great race!

This has got to be one of my favourite races so far, despite the open roads where there were some quite fast cars passing at some points. Minchinhampton is a lovely area full of beautiful houses and countryside. The atmosphere of the race was really friendly and the marshals were encouraging. I also thought the medal and t-shirt were a good quality and they had a cute design on them.

There wasn’t anything I could think of that I didn’t enjoy about this race, and it’s one of the only times I’ve ever run 10k and thought ‘I can’t wait to come back and run this race again’.

For spectators, there’s not a great deal to do but part of the school is open so they can grab some cake and drinks inside if they wanted to. When we bought a couple of drinks before hand (which I never do) we also had 2 free biscuits so that set my mood for the race to come!

Please note that the above opinions on the race are my own and based upon my own running skill level (I would consider myself to be an average runner) and while I’ve made every effort to ensure anything contained within this post is accurate, please check the race organiser’s website for full information.

If there’s any more information about the race that you’d like to add or ask, please leave a comment below