The Swineshead Ten - how it all began...

The Swineshead Ten was born in July 1981 when, over a pint in the (now closed) village pub - The Old Five Bells - it was decided to organise a run to raise funds for the restoration of the village church. The run was not officially recognised and the course was not officially measured. However despite only having two months to organise/publicise it there were 103 entries.
 

The run grew rapidly peaking in 1986 with the 300 runners taking part being started by Jeremy Beadle.
In the last few years, like many other runs, numbers have fallen but a core of some 150 still take part each year.
Many of the runners return year after year including one who has competed in every race except for the first in1981 and the 2005 run when he was injured but still came to support us. He will be running again in 2006.
 

The first run started in Sandye Lane, the lane alongside the Church, and followed essentially the same route through Riseley, Keysoe and Pertenhall as has been used every year since then. There have however been several minor changes firstly to make the route safer by eliminating the dangerous crossroads at Pertenhall and then to meet the requirement of starting and finishing on roads closed to traffic.
This last requirement led to the unpopular use of a return loop at the finish in 2004 when the runners ran through the village and then turned back to finish outside of the village hall.
 
In 2005 the return loop was replaced by an equally unpopular use of a local bridleway. The uneven surface resulted in the SEAA course measurer being unable to certify the course accurate.
 
The 2006 race will see yet another course modification with the run, as always, starting up the hill towards Yelden. At the top of the hill, instead of turning left, the runners will go straight on down the other side of the hill to the Dean turn where they will turn left onto a private concrete road through Melchbourne Park.
At the 3 mile mark the runners will rejoin the old course, turning right into Riseley. The course from there is unchanged with the finish remaining outside of the village hall in Swineshead.
 

The first run was commended as being well organised, friendly and over an interesting and attractive course. We pride ourselves on the fact that the same comments are still being made 25 years later.