Race Date: Sunday 10th July 2016

Another great Striders day out and an event that was very well organised by Adam and Kate – huge thanks from all of us to you. Lots of first timers mixed in with seasoned pros ably mixed up by ability by Adam led to some very good competition, especially on leg 2 by the look of it – although John and I couldn’t hold off the Lawson/Kilcoyne dreamteam challenge for very long either on leg 3 (about 5 minutes to be precise!).

I can only speak for leg 3 really but I dressed up like the club clown with 2 pairs of cut off socks covering my legs as I was determined not to get stung by those pesky nettles at the beginning of the leg and thankfully I didn’t  but I was a bit warm. Leg 3 is a hard leg. It has just over 1000ft of climb in under 5 miles with no major climbs – just a constant uphill with a couple of dips before you recover the lost height almost immediately. The sun was shining brightly, it was hot and I couldn’t believe how tired I felt. Lawson/Kilcoyne had disappeared into the distance whereas team Hardy/Richardson who has also passed us after about 5 minutes were kept in sight all the way round but neither of us had the energy to mount a challenge.

The final climb found a large gaggle of cheering Striders on the finish line, conveniently right next to the pub – now there’s a reason to do leg 3 if nothing else. John and I had to have a lie down before we could muster any strength to venture into the pub. A pint later, full recovery was underway and off for the buffet and post race analysis at the Victoria.

The conversation was flowing as usual and everyone had a great time. Presentations of prizes were made and I was extremely envious of the winning team’s prizes of Steel City Striders mugs – big thanks to Andy Green for these. A big well done also goes out to Louis Wood  who ran all 3 legs on his own and to Lucy Broom for running 2 of her teams 3 legs.

Once again big thanks to all involved in the organising of such a great event. It was well appreciated by all of us runners and roll on next year!

Leg 1 results and standings: