Race Date: Sunday 21st August 2022
Race Report by: Ben Jones
Sunday 21st August saw the final weekend of Rivelin Runners Dig Deep events – the lovely organisers have said they are retiring their events to spend less time standing in fields and more time with their families. The weekend consisted again of a 60 mile, 30 mile, half marathon and 10k event starting from Hangram Lane Farm. Now the results don’t list club names and I’ve been little out of the loop recently so I don’t know exactly how many striders raced so apologies for not listing them! I ran the half marathon as a birthday treat to myself. Having briefly led the race, as is my want, with a silly start, I ran 95% of the race in 6th place. The route climbed over the Porter, across the top of Lady Canning and over Houndkirk Road (with the Peak purple heather in full bloom. The middle miles slogged up to Higgar Tor to Burbage bridge before heading down Limb Valley. Now at Limb Valley I began overtaking striders. For a while I assumed they were taking part in the 10k version but they were actually participating in the Striders trail from Whirlow farm. Can anyone guess what happened next? My brief check of the map pre-race told me that at the foot of Limb Valley I should turn left to climb up to Whirlow Farm but the marshal confidently pointed me right to go up to the Hall like in the Striders event… After heading through the finish of the wrong race, confusion, demotivation and route innovation brought me back to the farm and back onto the route but having lost half a dozen or so places and a reshuffling of the leader board as many ahead of me suffered worse with the misdirection. I finished 11th (1:56:33) with a Strider just ahead of me but noticed with some Strava detective work that the long-time race leader ran an extra 3 miles and finished 25th… Minor grumbling over it was a beautiful run and I thoroughly enjoyed the three editions of the Dig Deep races I did since 2017. Hopefully they return in one form or another.
Oliver Carlisle was first strider (I think) in 10th , Kurt Fitch the first finisher (1:46:15), Sarah Harrison the first female (3rd overall) and former member Andy Davies ran impressively strongly for 2nd place.
Here are the results for the Striders that took part:
| Position | Name | Category | Time |
| 10 | Oliver Carlisle | M | 01:56:06 |
| 11 | Ben Jones | M | 01:56:33 |
The full results can be found here.
