The Totnes 10K is a local trail 10K which in 2014 was my first event race, that year I wanted to get a sub 1hr time and I sneaked in with a time of just over 59 minutes, 2015 saw me knock 10 minutes of that time. 

And to 2016 to show how much I love this event I did do the event in 2016 even though the day before I ran a 30 mile trail Ultramarathon which included over 4,500 ft of elevation climb around the Mendips.

But that was not going to stop me taking part in the Totnes 10K, the route starts with a half lap around a playing field before joining a footpath, this is a bottleneck area as you are 20 wide around the field going into a 3/4 wide pathway, so go towards the front, leg it to this part and get through before the crush. The paths open out again after this and you can overtake as it follows the river along, as you enter the gates to Dartington Estate, make sure you are well postionined as a single track lies ahead, then the path widens as you run along fields by the river, if you are lucky the Steam Train will pass by on the other side of the river. The route is a mix of flat and undualting terrain until mile 3.5.

Soon the Woods appear, again some of this is single track so if a slower runner is ahead, get past them, after a short time at around mile 3.5 the path starts climbing up and this is the biggest climb of the route, the climb gets steeper and turns several corners before a marshal directs you down a concrete path way, again this is narrow and can make for a very fast down if you dont get stuck behind a slow runner, you can overtake off the path but it is tricky, a long down sees you come out near the Shops at Dartington but you turn left and head along a flat section back towards the start, this makes for a faast finish, as you rejoin the playing field you have to do a 3/4 lap of it, which means you get a good view of the runners ahead.

A fab medal and water await you, the event is well organised as are all the Teignbridge Trotters events. The cakes for sale are scrummy.

How did I do in 2016? Well I was going to take it easy but a friendly rivarly with a running buddy, who jokingly said that they must be able to beat me this year as I had run an Ultra the day before spurred me on, my legs felt ok so I went for it trying to keep him behind me, at mile 5 one of the marshals who I knew gave me a supportive shout and hi 5, this spurred me on to a 52 minute finish, 3 minutes slower then the year before but I was very pleased with the result. 

I will do the Totnes 10K every year and if you are down this way, I suggest taking part. 

In fact this year I am training 5 people up to do it as their first trail 5K.