Race Date: Saturday 17th March 2018

Race Report by Cara Morris

A Winter Wonder Land

This 7km night-time trail race had been postponed from the 3rd of March when the ‘Beast from the East’ had struck much of the country and now two weeks on the ‘Mini Beast from the East’ had arrived. With news of many races having been cancelled I spent most of Saturday checking to see if ours would be too.  But with no news I travelled with my sister just as the weather was worsening.

We arrived early with Sherwood Pines looking like a Winter Wonder Land. We registered and picked up our t-shirts, then found the only other Strider, Matt Barton, and posed for the obligatory team photo. After jumping around trying to keep warm in the -3°C conditions it was time to start.

I found myself a lot closer to front than I normally dare venture, and sure enough I set off too fast. But a jump over a fallen tree and the sight of the first hill soon slowed me down. The course was nicely undulating, with a wonderful mix of mud, snow, blizzards and limited visibility in places (despite wearing mandatory headtorches).

Utterly brilliant, great fun with fantastic enthusiastic race marshals.

228 runners finished the race, including two Striders. The winner was Nickesh Patel (unattached) in 27:46, and the first lady was Dace Fenton (Retford AC) in 31:41. FIrst Strider was Cara in 37:51.