Race date: Sunday 2 September, 2018

Race report by Sheena Woodhead

Sherwood Pines at Old Clipstone is the largest forest open to the public in the East Midlands with over 3,300 acres to discover. Facilities at the visitor centre near to where the 10k starts include a café, cycle hire, the Go Ape Tree Top Adventure and excellent toilet facilities. I also saw the start of a Segway tour while there.

Race instructions were comprehensive, detailing location, car parking instructions (£2 discounted parking) and stating the 10k Trail Race was over an undulating course on generally firm hard backed trails.

This was the third time I had run this race and I had forgotten how ‘undulating’ the course was. In fact someone running behind me said ‘this isn’t undulating, it’s hilly.’ There did seem to be more uphills than down but maybe that was just the heat getting to me. It’s a twisty course, in a square sort of way, and on the trails between the tall pine trees I soon had no idea where I was. The course was kilometre marked so that helped. Plenty of water on course and the marshals were excellent, giving support and towards the end giving an indication what was coming next – ‘Last Uphill’ when I was ready for a downhill! Two minutes slower than last year for me but it was hotter and I am a year older!

According to the results 6 Striders ran, 3 men and 3 women. I didn’t see Dawn Jackson after the race so believe she had left early to find a petrol station but Sarah Allcard and myself hung around for the presentations ‘just in case’ and were rewarded with quite stylish trophies, Sarah for FV45 and myself for FV65 so we were both quite pleased. And then another bonus, the Striders men had won the men’s team trophy, with Luke Smith placing 6th overall, Malcolm Baggeley 14th and Jordan Moat 28th. Well done guys.

It’s a lovely park with lots to do and plenty of space, and many groups and families made a day of it and had taken picnics or used the cafes on site.

Results (508 finished):