Race report by Dave Beech

Definitely not to everyone’s taste, the Grim up North races are very much like marmite. You either love them or hate them. I’ve done a good number in the last 3 years so they clearly tick the boxes for me. Low key and friendly by nature, they offer a range of different distances all on the same morning. In this case there was a choice of ultra, marathon, half marathon and 6.7 mile races; they are predominately traffic free, off road trail races. This event started alongside the canal at Kirkstall and went along the towpath before diverting onto the riverside path and the trails through the pretty villages and woods in Calverley area.

With all the races starting together but on slightly different courses there was clearly the opportunity for runners to unwittingly take the wrong route. Sarah and I did the half marathon and well into the race out from a gap in the hedge popped half a dozen runners who had strayed from the marked route and negotiated an alternative route from mile 2 to mile 5. Said runners were slightly embarrassed at the end but had 13.1 miles recorded on their garmins so no real harm was done. Each finisher received a large blingy medal, chocolates, a drink, a cake and hot soup with home-made soda bread – the latter was most welcome because by mid morning the weather had turned from overcast to very cold and wet.

Half marathon results:

Alan You (unattached) won the race in 1:29:52 and Lyn Wrightson (unattached) was first female in a time of 1:52:29. There were 77 finishers. Striders results were as follows: