Under starter’s orders for Gainsborough’s popular 10K race

Sunday is a red-letter day in the local sporting calendar thanks to the eighth running of the popular Gainsborough and Morton 10K race.
Excited youngsters at the start of last years junior fun run.Excited youngsters at the start of last years junior fun run.
Excited youngsters at the start of last years junior fun run.

Almost 1,100 competitors have entered the contest and its associated fun run for juniors. In fact, so attractive has the event become that organiser, Kevin Housham, put up the ‘race full’ signs as long ago as just after Christmas.

Starting on Walkerith Road in Morton at 10 am, the runners will make their way up to, and along, Laughton Lane. The course then moves on to Carr Lane, which can be notorious for headwinds, before turning left in East Stockwith.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Passing through Walkerith, the athletes will then race back to Morton for the finishing line in Field Lane.

More than 60 of the competitors will be from the Gainsborough and Morton Striders club, and before the race, there will be a minute’s silence in memory of one of their longest-serving and most popular members, Helen Robinson, who died last month.

Striders were not involved in much racing action last weekend, with many runners stepping up their training for marathons. But the one exception was Simon Smith, who continued his globetrotting adventures by taking part in the New York City Half-Marathon.

In contrast to the sweltering weather he endured in Singapore, Smith faced freezing temperatures this time as he covered the course in two hours, 19 minutes.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

At Saturday’s parkrun in Gainsborough, Joe Humphries set a new personal-best time of 20.54 minutes, while fellow junior Alexandra Ramsdale was only one second away from her own best when clocking 28.46.