Report by David Adam

87 runners took part in the second Spirit of Ringinglow 14+K Mixed terrain trail race organised by http://www.spiritfortitudeuk.com.

Setting off in the glorious sunshine it was going to be a warm one.

The race starts and finishes in the car park on Fulwood Lane at the top of Porter Clough. Starting with a brief section of road along Fulwood Lane and Sheephill Road, the route then ventures off road (and uphill) with a fairly steady climb up the Sheep track (Houndkirk Road). After about 2 miles of steady climbing, the terrain gets steeper still as you head across Burbage Moor before turning to run along the rocks of Burbage Edge with the stunning vista of the valley below you.

A brief stop for water at Upper Burbage Bridge brought some respite before we headed off (uphill again) to meet Stanage Edge which brought the magnificent scenery of the Hope Valley into view below us. We ran along Stanage Edge until we reached the other Roman road of the day (Long Causeway) where we turned and headed toward Stanage Pole (uphill again, obviously!) until we finally had a long fast downhill section to the Redmires dams.
The route then moves away from the road and goes around the back of the dams. Luckily the top dam had been drained, so a slight navigational error didn’t result in us having to swim for it!

After the Dams, the route took one final, brutal uphill turn before re-joining Fulwood Lane and the final run back to the finish.

15.2K total, 300M ascent

The winner was Robert Pugh in a time of 1:10:20. The first lady home was Ellie Hurrell in 1:18:59

Striders results: