Anyone who might have run The Roaches fell race in the past will be familiar with some of the route. If you haven’t it’s a brilliant place to explore not too far from Sheffield. This race is shorter than The Roaches and with less elevation also less painful! It’s in summer too so prospects of good weather are better.With the race starting at 11am we had a nice relaxed journey over and with plenty of parking at Tittesworth Reservoir it was a stress free start. I picked up my number and chatted with a few familiar faces, recognising some local talent that I would be competing against; former Strider Rachel Thorley who is running really well For Dark Peak and young Buxton runner Lucy Bednall.

I’d looked up previous race reports to see what the race was like and spotted our former chairman Andy Buck had run this race in the past, although the conditions sounded far less favourable. Luckily for me it was only spitting with rain at the start and clear conditions all round, which I hoped would mean the navigation would be straight forward. We were told that taking kit was our choice, most runners didn’t seem to be taking any but with it being nearly 10miles my sensible head opted to take my bum bag just in case.

Anyway, on to the race and we started on a small pathway by the Visitor Centre due to some seeding work being done. Suddenly we were off. The route is pretty varied and very runnable with road, rocks, tussocky fields and even a bit of mud. I found myself in first position in the women’s race but I knew someone was not far behind due to the shouts from the spectators, so I tried to run harder! I was running with a few men and I’m pretty certain none of us were 100% familiar with the route. There was tape in places but it was not always obvious and a recce probably would have been wise. Running up and over Ramshaw Rocks I was naively following the man in front, who soon stopped just before a drop off and said we’ve gone the wrong way! I tried to concentrate a bit harder after that. Climbing up to Roach End I was determined to push on up and over the Roaches, it was getting warm and the sweat was stinging my eyes. The views from here are great if you have time to look and if your eyes function correctly!

The last climb of the race is up to Hen Cloud, a short climb but hard work on tired legs. We’d been pre-warned that the descent coming off was tricky and the organisers had given pointers for this. I thought I could work it out but didn’t do a great job and eventually ended up running through some woods meeting another runner who asked which way it was with then another runner coming back to say ‘go that way!’. I think everyone probably took a different route at that point and we were soon back on the race route so not much time was lost. I couldn’t take the same route again if I tried! Now we were heading back to Tittesworth Reservoir and the finish I was running as hard as I could knowing that Rachel and Lucy probably wouldn’t be too far behind. Not long after I finished they both came round the corner into the field at the same time for a very enjoyable to watch sprint finish!

More wine was my prize for winning the ladies race along with a hand sized framed picture of The Roaches.

This is such a brilliant race and it would be great to see more Striders next year, there are team prizes on offer!