Report by Jennie Stevens

Race Date: 10^th November 2019

Leg it Round Lathkill is a 7.1 mile fell race with just under 800 ft of descent.

It took place in the Peak District village of Over Haddon, and was part of the ‘Lathkil Fun Day’ which is full of various family games and events organised by the Hotel and raising money for the ‘Children in Need’ appeal.  Along with the Senior Race, there was a 1.8m Fun Run along the lower section of Lathkill Dale.

The start and finish of the race took place directly in front of the Lathkil Hotel, a traffic-free spot with beautiful views of the surrounding countryside.  There was a lovely friendly, family atmosphere at the start, and a good turn out of over 250 competitors.

With the recent wet weather, it was touch and go as to whether or not the race would go ahead, but fortunately it did, and we had glorious sunny weather on the day itself.  By the later-than-usual start time of 11:30, the day had warmed up nicely.  That said, conditions underfoot were tricky throughout most of the race.

The race began with a mad downhill dash towards the river and then a run along the dale for a couple of miles.  The path was really flooded in sections and we were running through water about a foot deep in some parts!  This was fun, but it was tricky not knowing what your feet were going to land on!  Before long, the path crossed over a bridge and we headed up and out of the dale via some very steep stone steps.

At the top, the race continued very slightly uphill through some muddy fields and then some muddy woods before heading down a road, offering a chance to get your breathing in check and make up some time.  Before long we were starting a steady descent through more muddy fields, through a large farmyard offering ts own special flavour of ‘mud’, and back up again towards the woods at the top of the Lathkill.

The final section of the race saw us making a steep, leafy descent down to and across the river, followed by a mile or so along the dale (not flooded this time), before our final steep ascent up and out of the dale towards the Lathkil Hotel.

It’s a tough finish, you can see it from a way off but it’s hard to get there.  I dug deep and stumbled over the finish in a bit of a state!  Within seconds my 12 year old daughter was in front of me talking non stop at me, I was hearing words like ‘WiFi hotspot’, ‘password’, and ‘sorry’, but it was all meaningless through my post-race daze!

I crossed the line in about 68 minutes, more or less what I was expecting (still waiting for the results as I write this!).

All in all a great race and a lovely day out.  It was very well marshalled, they were all really friendly and encouraging.  The hotel was great, offering a hot food buffet and good beer.  A large selection of cakes were on sale for Children in Need.  For £5, you can’t go wrong with this one!

The men’s race was won by Alistair Thornton (LUOC) in 46:33 and the women’s race was won by Jenna Williams (LUOC) in 58:07.

Link to full results here.

Four Striders took part:-