Report By: Sara Copp

Race Date: 17^th September 2022

Equinox 24, 10k race report

On Saturday the 17^th September myself and fellow striders Nichola Mills and Tracey Gledhill travelled to Leicestershire to support our amazing friend Maggie Vickers on her 24 hour race. We decided again to enter the 10k day race, despite vowing I would never ever do this race again!!!!!

Equinox 24 is a 24 hour running festival at Belvoir castle now in its 10th year, the daytime 10K starts at the same time as the main 24 hour event. This is a large event with over 1000 people at the start line. There are many trade stands, food and drinks stands and entertainment around the event village and there is plenty for family to do after the event. The toilet facilities are excellent and they are cleaned out regularly, didn’t even queue once! There is on site camping available from Friday to Monday for competitors and spectators. Equinox 24 is renowned for its welcoming supportive and friendly atmosphere and is a great experience for runners and supporters alike. Although I am not a fan of the course I absolutely love this event.

As well as the 24 hour race you can also enter the day or night 10K race or both, the day race starts at the same time as the 24 hour race which is midday on Saturday which meant we didn’t have to get up at 6 am!, the night race starts at 8:00 PM on Saturday each is one lap of the course. The event is open to all abilities whether entering to run solo or in a team of 2-8. The 10K route takes you around the picturesque Belvoir castle estate in Leicestershire.

The course had varied terrain and you find yourself running past lakes, through wooded areas, up and downhills and around open fields. There is a lot of scenery to take in, however I did spend the majority of the time looking down as the course is incredibly uneven and I am prone to falls (it’s my age and general clumsiness). The course has a mix of on and off road sections with some areas of more challenging uneven ground (massive holes in the grass) with some up and downhill sections (practically vertical). The final section takes you round the camping fields where the support of fellow runners and spectators cheering us on was amazing.  The course has excellent capacity and no single file sections, most races I find myself becoming anxious trying to get round runners and then I speed off too quickly. This year I did noticed there were plenty more runners who walked the entire event, this did make the passing difficult as they had sticks also.

Smiles all the way!

After the event it would have been rude not to have a cheeky pint from the double decker bus and obviously a stone baked pizza courtesy of my pal Nichola Mills. I even picked up a great bargain from the traders a lovely fleece reduced from £90 to £25. So if you are looking for a challenging course with beautiful scenery this is the race for you!

The race was won by Andrew Dewey in 38:01 and first woman was Naomi Daubrah in 47:33.

Link to full results here.