Race Date: Sunday 27^th April 2025
Race Report by Dave Beech

On the day that all the hype was being generated by some minor marathons around the streets of London, Manchester and Madrid and where a fair number of Striders were competing in the Dronfield 10km for club championship points I did a low key trail race in the heart of the Peak District.

I was the sole representative from Striders in the Tissington Trail half marathon, an out and back race along said trail starting and finishing in the White Peak town of Ashbourne. What a contrast to the big city races: easy to park near the start; no queues for the toilets; a small numbers of runners in the race; no spectators out on the course; no city noises, only the sounds of runners’ shoes pounding on the hard compacted crushed limestone surface and the birds singing. The countryside is at it’s absolute best at this time of year with lots of blossom and greenery and this gave the event a wonderful backdrop. The temperature at the start of the race was still cool and though it did warm up during the race it never felt too hot.

I started the race quite conservatively – too conservatively perhaps – but I was conscious that the first half of the race was gently uphill all the way. Which of course meant a lovely downhill from 6.5 miles to the finish. I felt strong at half way mark and achieved a 7 minute – yes 7 minute – negative split. There is no better feeling in a race than being full of energy and running in the second half and continually passing runners with ease. I was first in my age group which capped a most enjoyable race day.

The first male runner was Peter Cotterell (unattached) with a time of 1:23.41 The first female runner was Sophie Gardiner (unattached) with a time of 1:31:32. There were 135 finishers in the race.

Striders results in the half marathon race:-