Event Reports

Wakefield Hospice 10K Race Marshalling - Sunday 24th March 2019

The 24th Wakefield Hospice 10K race was held on Sunday 24th March, and took a similar route to last years: starting from Clarence Park, it's a linear route straight out and back along Horbury Road, but with a little dog leg around 1km in and a revised route to the finish line once back at Clarence Park (see route map below).

2018 10K Route Map.

The Wakefield 10K Road Race is organised for and by Wakefield Hospice, with the aim to raise as much as possible for patients and their families living with an end of life diagnosis. Wakefield Hospice annually needs to raise £4 million and the Wakefield 10K is their biggest fundraiser. It's also a popular event in the running calendar and attracts some seriously good amateur athletes.

Wakefield MAG have helped to marshal this popular event for more years than we care to remember, and our role is as mobile race marshals, looking after those competitors at the tail end of the race. The roads are only closed for an hour maximum, and although the bulk of runners will be finished whilst the road is still closed, a good number of runners (walkers !!!) will still be on the course, hence the requirement for mobile marshals (that's us !!) to ensure their safety, once the road is re-opened to traffic. We are generally the last 'officials' remaining on the course, and hence play a vital role.

This year, we had six marshals who assembled at Clarence Park in Wakefield at the ungodly hour of 08:30 (on a Sunday !!!) to support Wakefield Hospice with their 24th 10K run. 

Team 10K
OK, I know there are only 4 in that team photo but someone had to take the photo .... and Simon was waiting in the wrong road ;-)

We left the start area at 08:50 to take up position on the course, leaving Justine behind so she could join the back of the race and be a very visible 'back marker'. The race started at 09:00 and it wasn't long before the lead runners came storming past us. 

lead runner, Joe Sagar

The bulk of the runners then passed (including the odd fancy dressed runner), and then it was our cue to spring into action to marshal the tail enders.

Parked up, watching the runners

The winner of the race (Joe Sagar of Spenborough Athletics Club) finished after a mere 32 minutes and 6 seconds ... that's averaging 11.62 MPH ....... impressive stuff. The first female to finish was in 20th place, Rebecca Winter of Ackworth Road Runners, with a time of 36 minutes and 34 seconds (10.19 MPH).

After about 45 minutes traffic was being progressively allowed onto the road, so we took it in turns to ride the course, park up and observe and make sure the runners/walkers were safe. One or two issues with car drivers insisting on wanting to use Horbury Road when it was closed off, which is always slightly annoying (and the excuses are always lame in the extreme - 'I'm just going to the paper shop over there for my newspaper' .... er, walk you lazy ****). Also annoying were a group of MAMIL Cyclists (Middle Aged Men in Lycra) who patently didn't think the road closure applied to them and rode down the road just ahead of the runners ... just like last year funnily enough. Still, minor issues in the grand scheme of things.

Justine saw the last competitor, in 1,726th place, back safely, and it was Eden Edmonds, with a time of 1 hour, 46 minutes, 22 seconds. And then it was all over for another year. A huge thank you to Steve, Justine, Martin, Caz, Johnno & Simon, our 2019 10K marshal team.

We have since received a thank you letter from the Hospice and it's particularly pleasing to hear they are on target to raise £65,000, a significant increase on last year and sufficient funding to provide four months of nursing care !!!!

Thank You Letter

More details of the event here: www.wakefield10k.org.uk