Race Date: Sunday 9th July 2023
I have always enjoyed the Curly’s events as you tend to get a colourful medal and a cake! These were the driving factors for me rocking up at Normanby Hall on the 9th July. As is always the case with our plans for a Sunday race we find a Parkrun and head for that before checking into a local budget hotel ready for the following day.
We arrived at Ancholme Valley Way Parkrun, in Brigg and getting out of the car were greeted by a wall of hot humid air. This was going to be a grim one. The course is an out and back which I took steady due to the impending race and the humidity. While I appreciate parkrun is a run and not a race, I have to give a mention to my husband who achieved a first finisher 😊
We then enjoyed a lovely breakfast at the Courtyard Cafe, in Brigg getting to chat with one of the local parkrunners who happened to work in Sheffield, before we headed over to Scunthorpe. Due to the risk of escaping through the window of the ground floor of our Premium Inn it was not possible to open the window more than two inches so the night preparation involved trying (and mostly failing) to get some sleep inside a sweat box!
On arriving at Normanby I bumped into fellow Strider Bethan Varney who was up for the weekend, visiting family. The route was a mixture of trail paths, country roads and short section at the start / finish line of grass. There was good support around the course particularly in the villages of Thealby and Burton upon Stather that we passed through as well as at the start / finish line by the Hall. When I originally signed up for this race I was under the impression it was flat, however there was what was described by Bethan as “a drag” at the 5k mark which proceeded to around the 8k point, which was harder work than I had hoped for. On crossing the finish line, I received my bee themed medal and large cupcake and located husband. Parking and entry to the grounds are included in the price of entry but we decided to head back home before the cat got too mad and catch up on lost sleep!
3 Steel City Striders, 1 HRRC and 3 Sheffield Running club members made the trip to represent Sheffield.
The male race was won by Tom Straw of Lincoln Wellington in 31:02, the women’s race was won by Sophie Wallis of Lincoln Wellington in 33:59.
Striders results
| Position | Name | Time |
| 87 | Bethan Varney | 45:04 |
| 327 | Colleen Moore | 58:00 |
| 363 | Ruth Thomas | 59:26 |
Full results can be found here
