Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
Jedburgh 10k
by Russell Turner - 10:50 on 27 October 2025
That’s it – my final race of 2025 done, barring anything unexpectedly last minute. After three big city events in Inverness, Lincoln and York, the Jedburgh Running Festival was much more homespun, organised by the local club and featuring an entry on Sunday of under 300 combined for 10k and half marathon.
My journey to the Royal Hotel in Canongate featured the usual leisurely saunter, although I did risk the Edinburgh bypass and got through reasonably smoothly. Congested traffic on the other side was having much less fun. In Jedburgh I found a quiet town apparently indifferent to the forthcoming invasion of runners and a comfortable hotel room containing the smallest flatscreen TV in existence, barely visible on the mantelpiece from the bed, which made watching Strictly later in the evening less than ideal.
Before that, I set out in search of food and found it handily across the road at Bella Sicily which served a very tasty pizza. Recommended. I slept well, with the bonus of the extra hour gifted by the clocks going back.
Next morning I would have happily given the hour back: breakfast (toast and yoghurt – no full Scottish before a race) at 8am; a five-minute walk to the Jed Thistle rugby pavilion to collect my race bib and timing chip at 9am; check-out at 10am, then an hour of hanging around in cool drizzle before the race began at 11am, 10k and HM competitors setting off together. I spent much of it loitering in the pavilion, at one point marvelling at the skinny, wizened old guy sporting a HM bib who looked like he’d do well to run 100 metres. He probably finished in well under two hours.
I crossed the start line outside Jedburgh Abbey just 20 seconds after the off on a route which took us to the High Street, where a smattering of spectators cheered us on, and down to the A68, where the traffic was held until we turned on to a track which meandered and undulated through woodland to emerge just after 4k on the half-closed A698 Kelso road. Further up the road, 10k runners performed a U-turn while the half marathoners kept going. The drizzle continued but I was well warmed up despite wearing just a long-sleeved top and shorts in 4º heat. The lack of wind helped.
Shortly after turning we hit the 5k mark, which I passed inside 30mins – promising, but I knew it wouldn’t last. The road to the U-turn was slightly downhill, I now realised, which meant the return was slightly uphill, then even more uphill after passing the junction where we’d joined the road and running towards Bonjedward and the A68.
Rather than walk up the hill, I experimented with a few run/walks of 50 paces each, which helped me to the brow of the hill and the A68 where we returned to Jedburgh on the pavement. By now we were strung out enough for this not to be a problem and I was running again. The slight downhill helped. The last kilometre, back through town, included a couple of walks but got me to the finish line in 1:02, only a minute slower than the first 10k on a flat York course the week before which didn’t have any walks at all. My pacing is rubbish.
After collecting a modest wooden medal and a bottle of water, I joined spectators, supporters and other finishers on the finish line near the Mary Queen of Scots Visitor Centre to encourage later arrivals, then left to return to Grandson of Seat at the back of the Royal Hotel, remembering halfway there that I’d not collected my baggage, which included his key. Bugger. Back to the Jed Thistle pavilion, to discover the baggage was in a van at the finish. Double bugger. At least I’d had a good warm-down, and the bonus of finding free Snickers and Mars Bars outside the baggage van.
By now, several half marathoners had finished: vest-clad club runners who recognised rivals and shook hands in a serious manner. It’s another world.
I left Jedburgh around 12.30, initially up the A68 where half marathoners continued to stream down from the Bonjedward junction looking everything from comfortable to exhausted. I bypassed the Edinburgh bypass and arrived home in the dark. It had been a long day for a one-hour run but worth it to complete my 10th 10k of the year. It would have been 12 if I’d not been poorly for Durham and forgotten ID for Kinloss.
So what’s next? The only races in my diary are the Wakefield 10k in March and the Manchester Marathon in April, which is maybe 60/40 against. There are also a couple of other races pencilled in. In the meantime I’ll try to run up more hills and think about (but probably not do) the strength training that’s likely what I need. In the shorter term, a week of just walking is called for. I think I’ve earned it.
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