Saturday 25th September 2022

Raby Castle is a medieval castle in Darlington with deer roaming the grounds and miles of epic scenery.   Wild Deer Trail Events held this event and there were various different length races. The routes were over mixed terrain with some rough trails, firm paths, grass paths and woodland.  The courses w moderately undulating.  Stuart Jones, the solo Strider, came first in his age category.

Here’s Stuarts report – I think he sounds ‘glum’

Raby Castle is a proper child’s drawing of a castle – all towers, moat, crenels, portcullis, deer park and a massive treehouse. The Estate is huge, stretching from Staindrop to Bishop Auckland, and then reaching up into Upper Teesdale to include the dale’s many white-painted farmhouses and barns (a condition of tenancy is the fresh coat of lime-based paint every seven years); so fitting in a two-lap 10-mile trail race was easy. They have a large herd of deer, managed by both traditional methods (a ha-ha) and new (farmers on quadbikes). The Upper Pond is matched by the Lower Pond. The owner is titled: 12^th Lord Barnard. The Walled Garden is being reinstated as part of The Rising project. It is about as castle as you can get. On race day all runners got to bring in a guest (and a dog) for free (usual entrance cost is over £10 for the deer park alone).

So, I should have really enjoyed a race in which my bib number matched by age, and my finish position was only just over a third of that number. Sadly I am still nursing a sore glute (possibly the medial) and a niggling adductor (though it could be the semitendinosus, etc). I explained to someone that the injury was the result of racing rather than running – you simply push harder, and for longer, and then injuries do happen. It seems rest is the sensible solution. As the old joke goes, this week I have been walking with a pronounced limp – L.I.M.P., pronounced ‘limp’.

I was first in my age group, for the second race this year, made a certainty by me being the only person to start and finish in the age group. No prizes on offer this time, but I shall add it to my racing CV.

Nice wood medal, ill-fitting t-shirt, excellent range of cereal / energy bars and the usual bottle of water to all who turned up, ran and finished.

There are no official photographs as the Pap. was ‘ill’.