The entries for the 2026 event are now open here.
Race day information
Every year on New Year’s Day, we host the Serpentine New Year’s Day 10K race and 3K Fun Run. Both events are held on traffic-free paths within Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. The races are UKA licenced and held under UKA rules – UKA race licence.
NYD10k 2025 at Hyde Park
A maximum of 650 runners take part. All entries must be received in advance, and no entries will be guaranteed on the day. The race is open to all abilities with a cut-off time of two hours.
Course map
The 10K course is accurately measured with a UKA certificate of course accuracy. The course takes in many iconic landmarks, including Kensington Palace, the Italian Gardens, Long Water and the Peter Pan statue. The NYD10K race starts at 11 am in Hyde Park and is run on entirely traffic-free paths through Hyde Park, with the majority of the race taking place in Kensington Gardens. Runners complete two short laps in Kensington Gardens before returning to Hyde Park, finishing on the south side of the Serpentine at The Old Football Pitches.
The New Year’s Day 10K race course map can be found here.
History of the race
In the mid-1980s, the London Road Runners Club organised a race in Hyde Park on the morning of New Year’s Day. The race continued until the London Road Runners disbanded in 1989/1990, when the Serpentine Running Club took over the running of the race. The inaugural Serpentine NYD10K took place on 1st January 1992. It has taken place every year except 2021, when the Government enforced restrictions of the Coronavirus pandemic, preventing it from going ahead.
Early editions of the race were staged entirely within Hyde Park on a three-lap course, but the arrival of the Winter Wonderland in 2007 meant that a new course had to be found. The Royal Parks were keen that the race continued as it had started to become an important attraction for both tourists and locals enjoying the park on New Year’s Day. As such, a course was devised that takes in some of the park’s iconic landmarks, including Kensington Palace, the Italian Gardens, the Peter Pan statue and George Watt’s Physical Energy statue. This ‘new’ course starts and finishes in Hyde Park, with the majority of the race taking place in Kensington Gardens.
Spectators – some of whom are mildly bemused by the sight of club runners in their shorts and vests on an invariably cold winter morning – gather at landmarks around the course.
The race is open to all abilities, attracting 650 competitors, with many keen club runners and some new runners putting their New Year resolutions to get fit into place as early as possible. The NYD10K has, however, seen some outstanding competitive performances and has attracted former Olympians and elite athletes. Triathlete Annie Emerson was the first woman in 2004, and Jonathan Hay, the 2016 English Cross-Country Champion, won in 2017. Better known is Jake Wightman, the 2022 1500m World Champion, who won the race in 2015. In 2002, Hugh Jones (London Marathon winner in 1982 and 1984 Olympian), who measured the initial 10K course, swapped his course-measuring equipment for running shoes, finishing in third place.
Current records for the NYD10K are:
Female: 33:53 – Emma Pallant (2018)
Male: 29:39 – Seyfu Jamaal (2024)
The organisation of the race relies on the volunteers and members of the Serpentine Running & Triathlon Club. The club is grateful to the members who curtail their New Year revelries for an early start to mark the course in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens and set up the start and finish lines.
In the early days, when the race was smaller, Peter and Maureen Foster used to park their motor home by the finish and served mulled wine and mince pies for the finishers. Nowadays, competitors take home memorabilia, including a medal and the glory of having finished their first 10K before lunchtime on the first day of the year.
Results
Event results will be available here.