Newent 9 2025

My husband I, along with lots of members of our running club, recently ran the Newent 9 – or the Mandy Whittington Newent 9 to give it its full name. Newent is a small town in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. The Newent 9 is a 9.5k (ish) road race. 2025 was the 10th event. It is the final race of the year on our club’s road race series.

The race started at 10:30am, so there was no rushing or leaving the house in the dark. The race started on the grounds of Newent Community School, with race HQ in the sports hall. There was lots of parking on the school site, but runners were also advised to look for nearby parking. When we arrived at 9:40, we could see a lot of people had parked in the town and were concerned the parking at the school was all full. But we got one of the last spaces.

We had a small drama on arrival. At the registration desk, I gave both our names. And it turned out I was on the list, but my husband wasn’t. We had no idea he hadn’t signed up! They said he could do an on the day entry, but that was cash only. We didn’t have any cash. That was OK, he could get some from a bank machine in the town and pay later. We didn’t have our bank cards. While he went to see if he could sort out cashback, using his phone to pay, at the sports hall reception, I went and told our stressful story to some of the ladies from the club. And it turns out they had cash and couldn’t get their purses open fast enough! So these very generous ladies lent us some cash so my husband could run.

After all this stress, I only managed one trip to the portable toilets in the car park. There were six cubicles and the queues were long the whole time. I also didn’t have time for a warm-up.

There was a race briefing in the sports hall at 10:15. The sound was very distorted and I hardly heard any of it. Luckily, I’d read the email thoroughly. We then all walked over to the school sports field for a prompt start at 10:30.

The start was so prompt, we didn’t hear any warning. We were just suddenly moving! The race starts with a loop of the school field. It had rained heavily for nearly 24 hours just two days before, so the grass was very wet, as well as being very long. It wasn’t a good surface to run on, especially in Vaporflys, which are definitely designed for the road. My feet were soaked within seconds.

The route then leaves the field up a narrow, short slope, runs behind the field on a hard, muddy path. Then there was a short downhill and a sharp turn onto the road. This was pretty treacherous with surface water and fallen leaves and I had to slow right down to take it carefully.

And then we were climbing!

Strangely, when I’d told me friend, who lives in Newent, that I would be racing there and she asked if the race was hilly, I told her it wasn’t. How had I blocked that out?! My husband had looked at the elevation the day before and reminded me that it is a hilly race. The first half is mainly uphill and the second half is mainly downhill, but within the uphill half there is a lot of downhill too. The whole first half feels like a rollercoaster of going up and down. The hills didn’t feel too bad because the downhills gave a bit of momentum for going up again.

The 1km sign definitely came a bit late, as did the first few signs. My husband ran with me briefly between 1km and 2km, then told me to go on without him.

Newent 9 is an open road race, so all headphones were banned. We did encounter quite a few vehicles on the narrow roads early in the race. Luckily all the drivers were patient and respectful. At just over halfway, we turned onto the B4216, which is a wider road, with a more even surface. At about this point, I decided my time was going to be slightly slower than last year.

There were marshals at every turning point or crossing. They warned us to be careful of the cattle grid at 4km. Actually, that wasn’t a problem because it had a path going round the outside of it. They didn’t warn us about the one at just before 5km, which we had to cross and was therefore far more risky.

At about 7k, we entered a housing estate on the outskirts of Newent. At this point, the route got a lot more winding and we were on and off the pavement. We were advised to use the pavement wherever possible for safety, but there was a definite temptation to use the road, as it’s flatter and more direct. At this point, the man just behind me, who obviously knew the course very well, started shouting instructions to me to help me take the most direct route – move to the left/ right, go on the road etc. I found this very helpful and motivating.

As we entered the pretty town centre, there were marshals advising us where and when to cross the road safely. It’s a slight downhill through the town centre, which was very pleasant. I felt I was running strongly and at my absolute capacity. I wasn’t going to be able to go any further or any faster. We passed the 8k sign, then the 9k sign after we’d left the town centre. We were on the road with the school at this point. But we weren’t going to run straight there. We were going to do a little loop round a housing estate first!

As we left the housing estate (another slight uphill), it was just a short sprint to the school. I’m pleased to say the finish line was just inside the school gate.

I crossed the finish line in 44:42 – eight seconds faster than last year and first in my age category. I completely credit the man behind me for motivating me to gain those eight seconds. My husband was about a minute behind me. We were told we would get a medal and ‘a surprise’ at the finish. The surprise turned out to be a bright orange warm Newent 9 hat, which I will be wearing a lot this winter! We also got water in a paper cup and a small bag of Haribo sweets. The medal is one of the best quality medals around. We only paid £18 entry for an affiliated runner (or £20 for on the day entry!), so I have no idea how they can provide so much stuff for that price.

There were hot drinks and cakes, free to runners, but they encouraged a donation for charity, in the sports hall. Spectators could buy drinks and cake for cash.

The prize presentation was in the sports hall at 12pm, which felt a bit late. But they did award a prize to a man for winning the 80+ category, so they had to be inclusive and make sure everyone had finished. Everyone won a bottle of beer – even the man and woman who came first overall.

After the race, one of the newer members of our club told me she’d read my blog about last year’s race and it had been very useful and she knew to expect the hills. (I should have read my own blog back because I’d forgotten them!) When I write these posts, even though I always write about my own aims, experience and achievements, I also want them to be a resource for people running the races. So I was really I was really pleased she’d read it and found it useful.