Report By: Malcolm Baggaley

Race Date: 31st July 2022

To be honest, I can’t remember why I signed up for this, the best I can remember it was an impulse sign up after seeing an email about it. But, whatever the reason, I headed off to South Cave (about halfway between Goole and Hull) on a rainy July morning to have a go at their 10k, hosted by Kingston upon Hull Athletics Club.

Number pickup was smooth, but the toilet situation could have been better, with the HQ hosted in the changing rooms for the local sports fields. And there was a good turnout with over 500 runners taking part this year. One of those was fellow Strider Nick Booker, who found me as I was taking selfies at the finish line (of course). Thankfully, this did mean that Nick could finally get his hands on his prize from the Buxton Half Marathon which had been living in my car boot for well over a month.

At about 8:45 we were ushered from the field to head to the start. It’s a nice little village, and the start is in the grounds of Cave Castle, once home to the great grandfather of US Founding Father George Washington, now a hotel and country club.

After some energetic shouting from a local PT trying to muster people into a warm up, we were sent on our way just as the heavens opened into a downpour. Being both hot and chucking it down certainly didn’t add to the enjoyment factor, but hey, these are the breaks. The route itself was nice, and pretty flat. It started on village roads, with them gradually getting narrower and narrower over the first 5k before disappearing completely and taking us through a field for 400m at the half way point.

The second half of the race took us through the very picturesque village of Ellerker, before heading back to South Cave on a fairly steady upwards drag without it ever really becoming steep.

To get us to the finish, the last 1k had a nasty double switch back through some gates, followed by steps to take us up a path at the side of the library, before emerging onto the sports field (which was also being used as the car park). A quick 200m around the wet, grassy finish loop and we were done, thoroughly soaked, and totally spent. The medal and t-shirt are pretty nice, and all in a race that was less than £20.

Without the rain, it would have been a really good race to do, with the rain, it made the two sections on grass very tricky in road shoes. For my part, I’m not in any sort of form but am enjoying just racing for the fun of it, so wasn’t expecting a quick time and came home in 42:52 in 49^th, Nick faired a good deal better with a top 20 finish in 38:44.

Nick was using this as a stop off to head to the coast for some fish and chips, I’d made a last minute decision to go to Wembley for the Euros final so back to Sheffield for a quick shower before driving down to cheer on the Lionesses.

The race was won by Oliver Donkin (Barton & District AC) in 34:29 and first woman was Charlotte Ward (City of Hull AC) in 35:30.

Full results here.