Darent Valley 10k 2018

The Darent Valley 10k is my yearly ritual race. I've run it every year since I moved to Dartford and 2018 marked my fifth time running it. The build-up to this race was not ideal for me - I spent six weeks during March and April not feeling too well and did absolutely no running whatsoever. So expectations were not high, and that was fine with me - All I wanted to do was enjoy the event and maintain my streak.

pre-race

I usually cycle over to the race, but this year I didn't feel I had the strength in me to cycle there, run, and then cycle back home. So I reluctantly took the car. Parking is pretty tight in and around Eynsford and Farningham, but there is a field which a local farmer allows runners to park in just a few hundred metres from the race HQ at Anthony Roper School.

If you've read my previous blogs you'll already have a pretty good idea of the set up of this race, and nothing has changed. So after using the school hall to get changed and store my bag I headed out to get warmed up and use the toilets (I avoided the queue this year). The race has a nice, early start time and at about 8.20am I got into position around the school gate. The weather conditions were pretty perfect, no wind to speak of and the spring air was slightly cool, but not cold.

eynsford viaduct

It's probably a good time to mention that I was taking part in this race as an unattached runner having not renewed my running club membership. So the race got underway and I found myself alongside my friend Richey. Together we kept a decent but sensible pace throughout the opening couple of kilometres. After that we went our separate ways and I maintained the decent pace - it wasn't an aggressive 10k pace, but ever-so-slightly under it. Probably more like a tempo run kind of effort, which felt good and I was able to enjoy the scenery without too much grimacing.

The views throughout the race are very scenic - there's the view over the Darent Valley itself, followed by the 9 arch viaduct, and, by the half-way point - Lullingstone Castle. Around this point my effort level had started to creep into what felt like 10k effort, and I climbed the slightly uneven path through the Hart-Dyke family farmland before joining the section along the Lullingstone parkrun course. This is the only part of the race that is off-road, and it covers about a kilometre. Still it has been dry and firm every year I have taken part and my road shoes have always been fine.

400m from the end and i was smiling [photo: eden summers]

Heading onto the country lane outside Lullingstone Country Park, the biggest climb of the route is imminent, and at roughly 7km into the run you hit the bottom of it. The initial section leading up to the main road is the steepest, but the incline continues after turning onto the A225, and it's a good 800m in total before the course starts to flatten out...

... and when it does, you are left with the final 2km which is almost entirely downhill. I always find it very satisfying to know that my fastest kilometre splits are saved right until the end. Looking at the breakdown of kilometre splits, as always my 8th kilometre was the slowest of the race because that contains the long stretch of continuous incline, and the final 2 kilometres were indeed equal fastest.

st botolph's church

This year's medal featured a picture of the St Botolph's Church which is within the grounds of Lullingstone Castle. This particular image was used in memory of Guy Hart Dyke who passed away in February 2018 aged 90. He had been the owner of Lullingstone Castle since inheriting it in 1969, and had kindly allowed the race to cross part of his land for many years. The castle and grounds have now passed to his son Tom Hart Dyke, and I hope the good relationship continues for many year to come.

My race stats:

Time (chip): 45.19
Position (gun): 65 / 529
Official Results Page: Chiptiming UK DV10K 2018
GPS data: Darent Valley 10k 2018
Relive course flyby video: Darent Valley 10k 2018 flyby

Darent Valley 10k 2017

Every year since moving to Dartford, on a certain weekend during the spring, I get up nice and early, jump on the bike and cycle over to the Anthony Roper School in Eynsford for the Darent Valley 10k race. 2017 was the fourth year of doing this, but it very nearly didn't happen.

You see, I had been having some trouble with my ankle and held back on entering the race. However, on the morning of the 2017 race, I woke up and decided to cycle over to the race to support my friends that were running - at this point I definitely was not going to run.

[photo: 7t]

I arrived, headed into the school hall and found the rest of my Dartford Harriers running club members. I mentioned the troublesome ankle, chatted for a bit, and before I knew it I was queueing at the late entries desk with £15 in my hand to pay the on-the-day affiliated entry fee.

What I didn't mention was that before leaving home, I had packed my running kit in my backpack, so I had everything I needed to take part. This years race had a higher turnout than the previous years I had run and this was mostly down to the event moving to an early May date rather than mid-April which inevitably didn't fit into any London Marathon runners' diaries.

With my training being almost non-existent in the six weeks leading up to the event, I didn't have high hopes for my performance. My main goal was to get around the course without aggravating the ankle, however I had hopes that this year wouldn't be a new personal worst.

[photo: angela fathers]

I started the race from well back in the pack and took the first kilometre nice and easy. After that, I felt like increasing the pace so I started to push a little harder, but not quite at what I'd call race pace. Over the next few kilometres I filtered through the field and generally felt pretty good.

I had a slight pain in the left knee which was related to an unfortunate incident where I bashed it on my mum's kitchen table a few days earlier, however I pushed through it and it was generally fine. I took it easy through the off road section that passes along part of the Lullingstone parkrun course and it was soon time for the hardest part of the race, which is the long incline which leads up to the A225 road.

Once the incline ends, the final, slightly downhill 2.5km closing section begins. It's a little hairy as this section is run an a main road with not really any pavement available to run on. Still the last two kilometres are great fun and very fast. Before I knew it, I had arrived back at the Anthony Roper School and headed into the finish funnel.

[photo: 7t]

The medals at this race have quite a nostalgic feel to them and they always feature a scene from the local area. This year's medal featured a windmill and it looks great with my medals from 2014, 2015, and 2016. As for my overall performance, despite the lack of training and various niggles, I ran the race faster than I did the previous year, so that was pretty good!

Race stats:

Finishing time (chip): 43.58
Finishing position (by gun): 118 / 653

Full results: Darent Valley 10k 2017

GPS data: Strava - Darent Valley 10k 2017

Darent Valley 10k 2016

The Darent Valley 10k, hosted by Swanley and District AC has become a bit of a yearly ritual for me. For the last two years I have cycled to the venue, run the race and then cycled home via the scenic route. This year was no different apart from I managed to somehow convince my friend Richey into cycling over with me.

The other differences to the race this year were that my knee injury (torn meniscus) has resulted in a severe lack of training, so my 10k times are on a downward trend. I seem to be getting 2-and-a-half minutes slower everytime I run this race! And the other big change is that I am now a first-claim member of Dartford Harriers and this was my first first-claim race in the Harriers vest.

dartford harriers

If you are looking for a detailed description of the event then I would point you towards my blog posts from 2014 and 2015 which contain much more helpful information than this post does. This race also gave me an opportunity to test out my New Balance Zante V2 running shoes and they felt fantastic all the way through.

The race itself got under way in the usual way and to be quite honest, I found it very tough this year. The knee issues have prevented me from putting in any decent mileage and although I got around in a fairly respectable time, I found it really, really hard. The flat sections weren't too bad, but my legs really can't handle going up any kind of incline at the moment. And this course features quite a few inclines.

running through 'ankle breakers alley' (approx 6km) [photo: andrew langdon]

But just like everyone else, I got around the course, which is challenging but extremely scenic. It even passes along part of the Lullingstone parkrun course (or does Lullingstone parkrun use part of the Darent Valley 10k course?) - Anyway I visited Lullingstone parkrun the day before this race and it is fantastic.

There are not a huge amount of spectators during middle miles of the race, but I was very grateful for the cheers from the volunteers out there marshalling and then from the locals as I made my way back through Eynsford during the last kilometre.

darent valley 10k 2016 medal

With the race over and a new Darent Valley 10k personal worst of 44.41 in the bag, we grabbed the bikes and set off for the return journey back to Dartford via the aforementioned scenic route. Even with the slightly disappointing result, this is still one of my favourite races and I hope to be repeating my yearly ritual for many years to come.

Chip time: 44.41
Gun time: 44.44
Position: 53 / 410
Official results: Darent Valley 10k 2016
My GPS data of the course: Darent Valley 10k 2016 Strava file

Darent Valley 10k 2015

I ran this race in 2014 and came away with a pretty good result (39.57). It's probably handy to read that blog post (Darent Valley 10k 2014) before reading this one because this one contains a few references to last year's event. For the record the event is superbly organised and hosted by Swanley and District Athletics Club.

dv10k [photo: 7t]

A year later and my running had fallen to bits. A lingering knee injury has meant that my training had been almost non-existent for four months leading up to the 2015 event, and up until 48 hours prior to the race I wasn't going to enter.

However, it had been set as the first race in the 2015 SLGR Grand Prix. I'm not that fussed about competing against my team-mates but the opportunity to run at a race with such a huge group of them was too much to resist. So I gave in to temptation and entered the race via the runbritain website and paid the £13 affiliated entry fee (£15 for unaffiliated runners). I used runbritain because they do not add a fee to the entry price like some other race entry websites (*cough*runner's world*cough*).

sparepenny lane [photo: 7t]

Considering my knee troubles I knew this was going to be a poor performance in comparison to what I achieved at the previous year's race. So my only real goals were to come away without making my injury any worse and to enjoy the morning. I definitely succeeded in one of them. *sigh*

On the day, just like the previous year, I jumped on my bike and headed down to Farningham/Eynsford to the race HQ in the Anthony roper School. I arrived and found the bike racks that I had used previously. If I had driven I could have parked up in the official car park adjacent to the school. Number collection was out in the school playground and involved going to a big board, looking up my name and making a note of my race number, then going to the collection point and quoting my race number.

darent valley path [photo: 7t]

I met up with a small group of SLGR runners who were huddling in a corner of the school hall. There were other groups outside but as it was a chilly, but beautiful, morning I was glad of a bit of warmth - the cycle ride over to the venue had left me with cold knees.

There were plenty of portaloos in another part of the school playground and I got in the queue a little bit too close to race start time. By the time my turn had come around there were only 3 minutes left before we'd be heading off. It was a bit of a struggle getting through the crowd of 623 runners (double 2014's number of entrants!) but I managed to reach a spot that was close enough to the front to mean that I wouldn't be held up.

looking across darent valley towards the race hq [photo: 7t]

After a short briefing we were off. The first thing I noticed was that the main road was much smoother this year (in 2014 it was heavily pot-holed following a very wet winter). I wound my way round the road until reaching the first kilometre point and turning into Farningham High Street.

After passing the lovely St Peter and St Paul Church, and then crossing the River Darent the course started to head uphill. Gently at first, but getting quite a bit steeper after turning left again onto Sparepenny Lane which runs parallel to the Darent Valley path (Dartford parkrun also passes along the same path, but about 10km further north). The 2 kilometre point is shortly reached. Then the 3 kilometre point, which I'm pretty sure is in the wrong place - both times I have run here I have found that I reached the marker in a time that was inconsistent with the pace I had been running.

lullingstone road [photo: 7t]

After spending the next few minutes glancing over at the view across the Darent Valley the road came to an end and it was time head down Lullingstone Road towards Lullingstone Castle, but not before passing underneath the Eynsford viaduct, which never fails to impress! The route then went past the road that leads up to Eagle Heights birds of prey centre, which is also home to some big cats and various other animals.

One more feature that the route passes here is the Lullingstone Roman Villa, which has a visitor centre built around it. The Villa dates back to around 100AD and features some of the finest excavated remains of a Roman Villa in Britain. I remember visiting it as a child. Actually my parents often used to take me, my sister and brother on days out to Eynsford back in the 1980s (it was a proper day out because we lived in central London). It still looks and feels exactly the same as I remember back then.

eynsford viaduct [photo: 7t]

After the Villa the road narrows and starts to undulate as it finally winds its way past Lullingstone Castle and the half-way point. I glanced at my watch at this point and found that I was about a minute off my time from 2014, which was pretty much what I was expecting. It was now time to leave the paved roads and go off-road for a while.

If this race was run in the winter you'd probably seriously consider wearing trail shoes to help negotiate this section, but as it was April and the last few weeks had been pretty rain-free, the soil was bone dry so road shoes did the job perfectly. It's a rocky uphill path to begin with and then the path becomes grassy. It passes through a few separate fields (the brand new Lullingstone parkrun uses part of this section) before swinging downhill along a narrow, tree and bush-lined pathway that contains some protruding tree roots.

just before the 4km marker having run under the viaduct [photo: brian pitkin]

At the bottom there is a sharp right-hand turn and the off-road section is complete. A fairly short, flat road section is followed by a quick detour through Castle Farm and this is where the longest section of climbing starts. The road gets gradually steeper as it reaches the A225 main road. Then as you reach the top, pretty much at walking pace, you turn left hoping for some relief, but the hill continues (albeit at a more comfortable incline) and it seems to go on for ages.

The eighth kilometre has been my slowest split on the two ocassions I have run here. But just before the end of this kilometre, the peak of the hill is reached and the remaining two-and-a-bit kilometres are almost exclusively downhill. The course soon weaves its way past Eynsford train station and then into the centre of Eynsford (Kent village of the year 2006). The course passes the St Martin of Tours Church which is opposite an ancient ford and medieval hump-backed bridge.

neck-and-neck with drr approaching the finish [photo: brian pitkin

Now inside the final kilometre all that is left is to weave along Eynsford High Street, which is now fairly flat but there is a very small undulation that feels bigger then it is when running on tired legs, and then turn back into the Anthony Roper School and cross the finish line.

Post race there was a medal to collect and some drinks, chocolate bars and bananas on offer (in fact, this is one race where I went home with more bananas than I arrived with!) I spent the next hour or so hanging out with the rest of the team as we exchanged stories of our adventures on the course. Quite a large group of us stayed for the prize-giving ceremony where our leading lady won first placed female.

2015 race medal, which continues the theme of using a scene from around the course [photo: 7t]

After a final team photo (there were a few throughout the morning, but sadly not one of them captured everyone from the club together) it was time to hit the road. So I said my farewells, changed back into my cycling gear and had a leisurely ride back to Dartford via the country lanes around Horton Kirby and South Darenth, taking exactly the same route as I had done a year earlier.

The official results were online a few hours later and I was about 2.5 minutes slower than in 2014 but that's just how it goes sometimes - you can view my GPS data on Strava. We had 48 declared first claim members of SLGR running in the race which was amazing. Last year we weren't even an affiliated club and we had about 10 runners running as part of the original 'So Let's Go Running' running group. I'd say that's pretty good progress!

(most of) #teamslgr [photo: ian pullen]

Time: 42.24 (chip)
Position: 76 / 623
Age Grade: 64.71%
Link: Official results

Lastly, I'd just like to add a huge thank you to all the volunteers that helped to make the event possible. And also to all of my team mates, to all the friendly faces from clubs near and far I had the pleasure of chatting to and to Dartford Road Runners Ian Pullen and Brian Pitkin for the fab photos that I have used above!

Darent Valley 10k 2014

The Darent Valley 10k is organised by Swanley and District AC and takes place around the villages of Eynsford and Farningham, in Kent.

I entered the race a few days beforehand via the run Britain website and as I am (officially) an unattached runner I paid the full £15 registration fee. The cost for affiliated runners was £13. Each of those prices rose by £2 for on-the-day entries.

race hq at anthony roper school

As the race was fairly close to home, I had arranged to cycle down to Eynsford with my friend Terry (@rencestar) and he entered the race on-the-day. Upon arrival, we found a small set of bicycle racks and after locking our two-wheeled-steeds to it, we went into the race HQ. For the record, car parking was provided in a separate grass area adjacent to the school.

Race HQ was in Anthony Roper School. The bib collection tables were set up in the main hall and this is where the majority of the runners were hanging out and getting changed. It also doubled as the bag storage area. I changed into my So Let's Go Running singlet and pinned on my number.

time to get changed

There are some small toilets within the school and there was a long-ish queue. However, there were plenty of portaloos around the back of the school in one of the playgrounds. There was no queue at these and I had no toilet queue dramas (unlike the week before at the Paddock Wood Half-Marathon).

The race started from the school at 8.30am. Runners turned left out of one of the gates and headed north along the A225, which had become quite badly pot-holed (I think due to the wet winter we had just had) but the marshals were all very vocal in their efforts to ensure everybody passed through this section without tripping on one.

the bridge over the river... err.. darent (in farningham)

At the end of the road the course turns left to take runners through the village of Farningham before climbing a short hill out of the valley and turning onto Sparepenny Lane. Shortly after, it passes the 2k (8.01) and then 3k (11.21?) markers to head along the relatively flat country lane that eventually takes the runners back down into the valley at Eynsford.

At Eynsford, the course turns down Lullingstone Lane, passes underneath Eynsford viaduct - an impressive red-bricked sight featuring nine arches and passing 75-feet above the valley the runners are running along. The River Darent meanders to the left of the runners through the fields where highland cows are not an unusual sight.

eynsford viaduct and river darent

The runners continue along the lane which starts to undulate and then passes Lullingstone Castle. Just after passing the 5k marker (19.57), there is a water station and the smooth roads and paths give way to a stony path, this then turns into grass and then finally a downhill dirt trail. At the bottom of the trail, the runners are reunited with the smooth tarmac and following another brief section on a stony surface finally hit the longest and hardest of the course's uphill sections.

Towards the end of the uphill, the course meets the A225 and the runners soon pass the 7k (28.52) marker. It was at this point that I realised that I had quite a bit of work to do if I was to stand any chance of reaching my sub-40 minute goal finishing time. To save you the maths, I was running over 50 seconds behind the required pace.

just after 5k with lullingstone castle's gatehouse in the background [photo: mathew woolston]

Fortunately, the last 2 kilometres are almost entirely downhill (but with a few uphill undulations thrown in). So after passing the 8k marker and forgetting to check my watch, I started the push for the finish. The route brings runners back into Eynsford via the southern end of the village, past the train station and then down into the centre of the village. The finish line in the school grounds is further along the road, and there is one final, gentle incline just before the end.

Upon turning into the school entrance, there is a sharp drop which allows for a very fast finish over the last 30 metres or so, I glanced down at my stopwatch and saw that it said 39.54, so I sprinted as fast as my legs would take me, crossed the line and almost couldn't slow down in time to collect my medal from the marshals on medal duty.

the medal selfie

By the time I had stopped my stopwatch, the timing read 40.08 - I knew my finish time would be a few seconds faster but I didn't know if I had managed to break the 40 minute mark. Fortunately the results had been printed and were available for viewing in the main hall. My gun time was just over 40 minutes, but I wasn't right at the front when the race was started, so I checked for my chip time, which showed that I had came in just a few seconds under 40 minutes, in 39.57.

The course was clearly marked and the marshals were fab - I even knew some of them, so it was great to be cheered on by name as I passed (thank you!). The medal is slightly different to the standard run-of-the-mill offerings that are common at local races. Instead this one features an image of an interesting feature on the course - it changes from year to year and makes a nice change from the norm. The facilities were all fine, the only thing I didn't spot was a sign directing runners to the portaloos, but I'm pretty sure there would have been one and I just missed it.

#teamslgr

After some water and bananas (and watching the awards ceremony), it was time to hit the road so we (the two of us plus our new So Let's Go Cycling recruit - Ben) took a lovely relaxing ride through the country lanes around Horton Kirby and South Darenth back to Dartford.

If you're interested in splits and all that (including hill profile) you can take a look at my gps data from the race. My 5k splits times worked out at 19.57 and 20.00 so that's a slight positive split - not bad considering the second half had the bigger hills (or inclines if you prefer).

17th overall

Time: 40.05 (gun)
Time: 39.57 (chip)
Position: 17th (out of 319)
Link: Official Results