Race Date: Sunday 15th February 2026

Held on the closest Sunday to February 14th each year it’s clear that, with usual impeccable organisation, the Stamford Striders Valentines 30k has been going for some time (32 years). The predominantly rural, undulating, course is challenging with over 300m of climb. There’s a curious similarity to the Wombwell Five also held on the same day – hill(s), housing estate shared with traffic and a sadistic finish with an extra loop just before the line. The southerly wind meant that at Stamford the public address system at the finish was audible with about 8k to go which gave false hope that the end was near.

Being held in mid-February competitors are always going to be at the mercy of the weather but this year conditions were truly abysmal. Resembling an edition of I’m A Celebrity (none of the competitors are celebrities either) it was vile with freezing temperatures, sleet, snow then driving rain with the sun making an almost imperceptible appearance late on just to taunt us. Persistent rain since Christmas meant that surface water was a feature throughout with mud washed down from adjacent land preparing competitors for the final lap of the playing field. Talking to Mandy Taylor after the race she described conditions as the worst that she had ever experienced, at 12k questioning her sanity but, unlike the tv version, unless genuinely injured there’s no real facility to drop out so the alternative is simply to carry on and get home asap.

Popular for those targeting a spring marathon, seven Steel City made the trip south down the A1although there could easily have been dissenters. With the adverse weather forecast, one competitor was considering the options available. Obviously, simply don’t go, except there was a promise to give two others a lift. Well, just don’t turn up then and leave them stranded except they were both calling for you. Answer, turn off all the lights, draw the curtains and don’t answer the door! Given conditions, there was a revision of aims and tactics with survival being the primary objective. Emily Green and Kathryn Liddiard made a pact to run together with Emily confessing  that this was the first time that she had ever raced in a rain jacket. Once at the start, Phil Gregory changed his mind and went back to collect his jacket too meaning that he started at the back, a similar fate for Luke Clay who also missed the start with perhaps his early ducking and diving leading to a loss of power at the half marathon point. One Steel City was so cold that he couldn’t rip the top of his gel and had to ask a spectator to help.

There’s an old wives tale that the pace run for 30k at Stamford is a predictor for your marathon time but given conditions most were happy simply to bank this one as a good, hard, long run. Happiest perhaps was Mandy Taylor who was only a minute slower than her time from four years ago.