Race Date: Sunday 21st August 2022

The Whirlowbrook Park Steel City Trail 10 route is now official and set, and at the last event (21st August) two regular participants (our own Laura Mella and Sam Evans from Totley AC) set new course records of 51:48 and 44:05 respectively.

The course is now a full 10K following the new diversion through the remains of the old Rough Standhills plantation of Japanese larch, which was felled last winter following a Forestry Commission statutory felling order due to Ramorum disease.

Described by some runners as like a ‘war zone,’ the new open land will start to become a native woodland over the new few years (there’ll be some planting of oak and birch trees this winter).

In the meantime, fifty years of pine needles, old tree roots and rocks makes the relatively gentle slope a ‘challenge’, again a less expletive laden description from one recent runner.

This route is two laps between a start bit and end bit, covering the Limb Brook woods, the park and surrounding farmland and very few people go astray nowadays – except, on this occasion, for regular first place contender Allan Shaw, who started late due to missing his bus, but still battled through to a very creditable 7th place finish.

Volunteers from the Friends of Whirlowbrook Park came along to say thanks to runners for the £48 collected on the day to help the Friends in their work helping to care for the beautiful Whirlowbrook Park.

41 runners took part this time, following the usual SCT10 philosophy of providing a fun and challenging course for everyone to run at their own pace – and thanks to Tim Holt and Richard Pegg for including the event in the Striders trail race series.

“Thank you for this morning. It was a really friendly all inclusive race. Tough route but great fun.” said one participant. “Thanks for a great morning, fantastic course, can’t wait to try it again!” said another.

The marshal and admin team were again singled out for praise by runners, so thanks again to: Kate Scott, Rachel Rea, Jo Gleig, Julie Armstrong, Tess Bocking, Annie Morton, Sandi Carman, Helen Eberlin, Nada Ross, Steve Haake, Helen Strong, Lesley Brosnan, Phillipa Rose, Graham Nield and Steve Blake.

We try to keep all Steel City Trail 10 events on the 3rd Sunday of the month, at various accessible locations around Sheffield, usually starting between 9 and 9.30 – all details are on the Steel City Trail 10 Facebook page.

We’re working with Sheffield Council on these events aiming to celebrate the city’s green spaces, to promote new routes for local runners and to support local voluntary groups helping to look after these areas. So do come along, we guarantee you’ll have fun, but you may also curse us for the mud and hills. And if you volunteer, we hope you’ll have chance to enjoy the landscape and nature of some of the wilder parts of the Outdoor City you may not have seen before.

On the 21st August, the first women back were all Striders, with Laura Mella at 51:48, followed by Sarah Allcard at 54:35 then Kathy Liddiard at 57:37. First man was Sam Evans (Totley) at 44:05, followed by Sam Smith (non-affiliated) at 48:25 then Strider Richard Lewis at 51:18

We are still VERY keen to find volunteers to help marshal, set out and time races so please visit the Steel City Trail 10 FB page and let us know if you can help.

The next races (volunteers willing) are: 18^th September  (Parkwood Springs  – trial run), 16^th Oct (Shire Brook – possible race), 20^th Nov  (Porter Valley), 18^th Dec (Redmires).

All are welcome, so tell your mates and do come and join in!

Striders Results: