Race Date: Sunday 13th November 2022

As the website says-  This is a great ‘ not too far ‘ race which is worth making the effort for on an autumn Sunday morning. That’s what I thought too, (7 miles)  reading the description and past reports, so despite my usual running companions being not available for various reasons, I went out there, feeling sure I would bump into familiar faces. And sure enough, met Kevin Haighton with some of his family, before I even got out of the car park field at Over Haddon, which was nice.

Also spotted Mark Platton, Abbie Pearse and Nicola Rafferty but never all in one place so no Strider group photo happened.Quite a few more Striders were at Roaches that day.

The race instructions advise avoiding Bakewell closed roads on the journey from Sheffield, as it’s always the same day as their Remembrance Parade, so of course being a race instruction obeying person, I successfully got there via Ashford In The Water.

The race is quite varied – downhill start to the river/ dale for a flattish couple of miles on a stony track, with the only notable occurrence on that section being Andy Davies, followed by a few mates, charging past after about 15 mins They had of course come via Bakewell so were late.

Then there were some steep steps out of the dale, where Paul Stuart came past. He must have also started late.Then fields, mist, stiles and gates, back down, back up, and uphill finish outside the Lathkil hotel. Part of the route is on the Limestone Way, so there were quite a few groups of walkers looming up out of the mist, and having to be run around. There is also some quite famous ‘mud’ just as you go through a farmyard entrance which I really didn’t want to fall in, so I had to be careful there. The marshall said I took an unorthodox route, but I didn’t fall over!

I’d hoped to do it in under 90 minutes and managed that. The last uphill bit was hard going, but I was in a small group, which was good for trying to keep up with each other. Met Kev for an after photo at the end, bought some cakes, and then home (via Bakewell, feeling daring!). Great little run, do it if you haven’t before.

The men’s race was won by Joe Oldfield of Matlock AC in 45.15. The female race was won by our very own Abbie Pearse in a new course record time of 50.11. Excellent effort Abbie.

Striders results: