Race Date: Wednesday 29th May 2024

Race #2 for both the SCS Trail Champs and the KMR Series, the Scholes Coppice Race, took place at the end of May. Rotherham Harriers & AC were the hosts.

The route was a lollipop; a narrow dirt trail with a few marked rocks and roots, taking you down to a loop which had to be done twice. The loop section consisted of a energy sapping climb through the woods, which continued out into a meadow and up to local landmark Keppel’s Column. Here we turned right, for some welcome grassy descent (if your knees like that sort of thing), eventually re entering the woods for a precarious downhill scramble.

Things went awry for the front runners when the leader took a wrong turn after re entering the woods on lap one, resulting in an extra 1km out and back detour into the heart of Scholes Coppice. This left the lead group battling to regain their places.

For the rest of the pack, the downhill scramble finished with a right turn onto a rough concrete path, a different surface for the climb back to the start of lap two. Here, at the end of the second lap, myself and others witnessed two runners exiting the loop entrance. Perhaps they’d started lap 3 and realised their mistake; but this and the mysterious reappearance of the front runners planted a seed of doubt in my mind for the final stretch. Was it me who’d taken a wrong turn? By the finish I was ready to confess and disqualify myself, when the oxygen finally returned from my legs to my brain and things became clearer.

Despite the confusion it was an enjoyable & varied route. Back at race HQ they put on a good buffet and gave out prizes, including a 1st in category for Fiona Jeffries, well done Fiona.

Fifteen Striders were among 147 runners who lined up for the Scholes Coppice race. The men’s race was won by Dominic Fielding of Worksop Harriers in a time of 22:13. Cat Eddison of Rotherham Harriers AC won the women’s race in a time of 27:29.

Striders Results