Dry January 10k Road

Race Description

Held on Willen Lake in Milton Keynes at the start of February, the Dry January 10k is run by the charity Alcohol Change UK to mark the end of the annual sober-January challenge, and the setting suits the occasion: two laps of tarmac and gravel paths circling the lake's balancing waters, passing beneath Milton Keynes' well-known Peace Pagoda, built in 1980 by Buddhist monks and nuns as the first such monument in the Western world. The course is flat and traffic-free throughout, following the lake's paths rather than roads, which makes it a genuinely easy, low-stress route for runners of any experience level, from those completing their first ever 10k as part of a Dry January challenge to faster runners simply enjoying a flat winter loop.

Since launching in 2025 with around 300 entrants, the event has grown quickly, with numbers expected to reach 500 for its second edition, reflecting both Alcohol Change UK's wider profile and the popularity of Willen Lake as a running venue. It's a deliberately inclusive event, welcoming buggies and dogs alongside serious runners, and works equally well as a fundraising target for people supporting the charity's alcohol-awareness work or as a simple, scenic winter 10k without the pressure of a big-city road race. The lake's mix of open water, parkland and the pagoda's quietly striking presence gives the course more visual interest than the average flat loop, and locals treat it as one of the better free-standing winter fixtures on the Milton Keynes running calendar.