Barry Richards 10K

Race Description

The Barry Richards 10K is very much a Hastings Runners institution, a club-only race, free to paid-up members, that has become a fixture of the club's summer championship calendar. It starts at the foot of Galley Hill in Bexhill-on-Sea and heads out along the flat seafront promenade to the Cooden Beach Hotel and back, with barely any climbing to speak of and a stiff finishing pull as the only real test on the way home. Run as an evening race, typically starting around a quarter to seven, it makes the most of long summer light and the open sea views along one of Sussex's most historically interesting stretches of coastline: Bexhill's seafront hosted the Great Whitsuntide Motor Races in 1902, now recognised as the birthplace of British motor racing, and a memorial stone still marks where cars once thundered along what is now a running route.

Because entry is restricted to club members, the atmosphere is unmistakably that of a club night out rather than an open road race, supportive, low-key, and focused on personal effort and club bragging rights as much as times on the clock. The flat, fast profile means it's genuinely popular with members chasing 10K personal bests, and results over the years have included club records falling on hot evenings when the sea breeze hasn't quite been enough to take the edge off.

For Hastings Runners, it's as much tradition as race.