Gallery: Newton Town and Gown 10k
Runners were out in force on a fairly chilly morning – though it did brighten up a bit later on – for this year’s Newton Town and Gown 10k run.
Supported by the Cambridge Independent, the eighth Town and Gown run, which also included a 3k children’s race, took place on Sunday (October 20) and took in some of Cambridge’s most beautiful sights, starting and finishing at Midsummer Common.
The 10k saw 2,306 participants – who were among nearly 9,000 people to have signed up for events across the UK this year – run in aid of Muscular Dystrophy UK (MDUK).
The races were started by Leo and Quinn De Martino-Ross, two children who suffer from Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).
This followed a fairly vigorous warm-up led by F45 Training Cambridge Station, a new form of intensive training which is located on Station Road, Cambridge.
Mayor of Cambridge, Cllr Gerri Bird, also addressed the crowd before the proceedings got under way.
Town & Gown 2019. From left, Quinn De Martino-Ross, 7, and Leo De Martino-Ross, 11, start this year's races. Picture: Richard Marsham
Muscular Dystrophy UK race director Jessie Keighley said: “Cambridge produced some fantastic runners this year, on a crisp October morning.
"I was absolutely delighted with the winning time from Cambridge & Coleridge AC runner Joseph Smith who smashed it to a gold medal in 30min 1sec.
"This was an incredibly impressive time which was 1 min 40 sec off his PB for Joseph.”
She added: “In the women’s race, Georgina Schwiening of Cambridge Runners secured first place and a personal best in 34min 6sec, improving on her time from the Vitality 10,000 earlier in the year.”
The charity raised a total of £6,997,000 in the last 12 months thanks to the dedication of runners, the personal and professional networks around people living with musclewasting conditions, MDUK’s branches, groups, corporate partners, trusts and foundations and legacy donors.
In 2018/19, the money raised resulted in £1.2million being invested into 10 new research projects and £1.8million going towards supporting UK clinical trials and other research activities.
This brings MDUK’s current investment in research to £9.7million.
Speaking from a personal perspective, I very much enjoyed my first Town and Gown – which was only my second official 10k – and felt heartened by the number of people who turned out to cheer us all on.
The run goes past some beautiful buildings and lovely green spaces.
It was very well organised throughout and the turnout of runners was impressive.
I would love to do it again next year.
