Sometimes the best races are the ones you didn't really plan for. I was visiting family in Bury St Edmunds when the St Nicholas Hospice Care 10K was suggested. It was a fairly last-minute decision to enter, and after checking the course profile on Garmin, I thought there was a realistic chance of finally beating my 10K PB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That PB had been sitting there since July 2025, when I ran the Saucony London 10K on a particularly hot day. The target for today was clear:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A goal:<\/strong> sub-55 minutes We arrived at the athletes' village nice and early to collect my number, which gave me plenty of time to take a walk around the Abbey Gardens and get the legs moving. Preparation the night before was pretty straightforward. A visit to Pizza Express provided a useful dose of carbs, and on race morning I went for a couple of waffles to get some quick, sweet energy in before the start. I'd also decided to carry some water during the race. That turned out to be a very good decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite having studied the elevation profile beforehand, the opening 2\u20133km felt tougher than I expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The course starts with a fair amount of uphill sections and, although I knew it was coming, knowing about a hill and actually running up it are two very different things. Fortunately, all those recent hill sessions came into their own. They haven't always been particularly enjoyable, but I could definitely feel the benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once we rounded the top of the out-and-back course, things started to feel much more positive. The sun had come fully out by this point and the heat was beginning to build, but I reached halfway knowing that I was on track for a good time. The second half of the course was predominantly downhill, so there was plenty of opportunity to start making up some time lost to the early hills. The water I'd decided to carry was also proving its worth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Note to future self: if in doubt, carry water.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n After a really enjoyable downhill section, I had around 2km left to run when I caught sight of the 55-minute pacer<\/strong>. That was the moment I knew, I'd got enough left in the legs to stay with that pace, with just one final little incline to get over, and then it was a straight run towards the finish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With around 400 metres to go, there wasn't much left to save. I emptied the tank. And crossed the line in: 53:50<\/strong> - a new 10K PB<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than that, all of the goals I'd set before the race had been achieved. Sub-55, new PB and - importantly - a race where I felt like the recent training was starting to come together. The hill training had helped when the course started climbing, the long run earlier in the week had given me confidence in my endurance, and the decision to carry water proved useful once the temperature started rising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The St Nicholas Hospice Care 10K<\/strong> was really well organised, with good support around the course and a friendly atmosphere throughout. It's also a great course for anyone looking for a 10K with a bit of variety rather than a completely flat out-and-back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I'd definitely recommend it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" St Nicholas Hospice Care 10K Run St Nicholas Hospice Care 10K Run - Bury St Edmunds Sometimes the best races are the ones you didn't really plan for. I was visiting family in Bury St Edmunds when the St Nicholas Hospice Care 10K was suggested. It was a fairly last-minute decision to enter, and after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","_lightning_design_setting":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1603,1604,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-running","category-journal","category-blog"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dankew.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dankew.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dankew.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dankew.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dankew.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9253"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/dankew.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9267,"href":"https:\/\/dankew.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9253\/revisions\/9267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dankew.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dankew.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dankew.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dankew.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
B goal:<\/strong> beat 57:43
C goal:<\/strong> apparently I hadn't thought that far ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dankew.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/20260927_092208-1024x577.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nPre-race<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dankew.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/20260927_093027-1024x577.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe race<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dankew.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/20260927_091043-169x300-1.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe final 2K<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Final thoughts<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dankew.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/20260927_093116-1024x577.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n