Keith Hall Memorial 10k: 40 years of road races in the local community
2025 will mark the 40th anniversary of road races in Thorney, a village situated in the Cambridgeshire Fens. The races have changed over the years to adapt to new roads, demand in the local running community and volunteer capacity. We caught up with Race Director, Laura Greenwood, ahead of the 40th anniversary race to see what makes Thorney road racing so special.
A changing route but constant community focus
In 1985, the inaugural 5-mile race was held in Thorney. Since then, the race has evolved from 5-miles to 12k and finally settled on 10k. Throughout the changes to the route, the local community have remained at the heart of the race and Laura explained how important this is:
“Although there can be some minor opposition from local Thorney residents, villagers seem to enjoy the spectacle! We have some Thorney residents and parish councillors marshalling key junctions. Our race entrants park their cars on a local farmer's land and we try to involve the local community as much as we can. We visited the local primary school this year, and subsequently, we had a very good turn out from local children for the fun run in the local park on race day.”
Members of Thorney Running Club have been key in setting up and continuing to make this race such a success every year. The 10k race is now named the Keith Hall Memorial 10k in memory of the club’s long standing and much-loved chairman and club founder.
“We are also very proud to boast that our usual lead cyclist is our oldest club member! Eddie is 85 years old, and he still runs and cycles! He was a contemporary of our founder Keith Hall, and he will be leading us out in our 2025 race.”
What makes the Keith Hall Memorial 10k so special?
The race has grown over the years and become a popular event in the calendar with all 400 places filled in the 2024 edition. The 2025 event is set to be special as Thorney Running Club look to celebrate 40 years of road races.
“We are very proud of our little 10k race, and we take the marshalling of it very seriously! We ask members not to run as we need to utilise all of our available members to marshal. It takes over 40 marshals to successfully stage the race, and we love coming together to support all of our entrants, especially the slower runners.
“All our races are known as ‘fast, flat and friendly’. Our marshals are vocal and very encouraging, and many PBs have been achieved in Thorney – providing the wind obliges!”
Being selected as a masters qualification race
The 2025 Keith Hall Memorial 10k has also been chosen as a qualification race for masters athletes looking to be selected for the England 10k representative race. This is something the club is very proud of.
“We were thrilled to be asked to be a qualification race for English Athletics masters athletes. In fact, we were incredulous - we actually weren't sure you had the right race! We are a small race, max 400, and we tend to attract just local runners, and so we just couldn't believe it when we received your offer! We consider our selection to be a great honour and we will do our utmost to ensure that our selection is thoroughly deserved.”
England Athletics Masters Road Running Coordinator Chris Hollinshead commented,
"I came across this race by chance earlier in the year when I was in the area. It is a lovely race, well organised and marshalled, by a local club, and undertaken on closed roads. I thought this small local race would help enhance our programme in the East of England."