Race Date: 18th December 2022

Race Report by: John Egginton

A full day of festive-based trail running was had by all on Sunday 18^th December including me and my wife Hannah. The event clashed with the World Cup Final, an oversight which lead to us watching the second half of the game on Hannah’s phone in the car, and missing extra time and penalties completely.

Hosted by Curly’s Athletes there were 3 events taking place at Normanby Hall Country Park near Scunthorpe.  Each were available to enter individually or a ‘Super Santa’ package was available (which we obviously took!) that got entry to both 10k events and the 3k fun run.

The conditions were tough going as it was still hovering around the 1° mark making for very hard and still icy ground!

First up was the Great Sprout Scuttle which in previous years has been a muddy affair but with the ground solid as a rock it wasn’t to be this year, and the freezing temperatures put an end to ‘Santa’s Spa’ which meant it was dry feet for everyone as this optional water feature had to be bypassed on safety grounds. This race consisted of 5k and 10k runners setting off together, with the latter running two loops of the winding course throughout the park. The frozen ground certainly made it a challenging run underfoot and you had to be mentally switched on at all times to avoid falling! 

I managed to bag myself 3^rd place in the race earning a little goody bag and trophy which included a free entry into another Curly’s Athletes event (which will come in handy for next year’s road race champs!) whilst Hannah finished in 31^st position out of 193 overall and 8^th female (2^nd in age cat!) so a good performance all round.  

Next up in the day was the 3k(ish) Candy Cane Canter fun run. One for all the family to partake in, this short loop could be run or walked. It wasn’t a timed event and had staggered start times taking places over the course of a couple of hours. As the name suggests candy canes were up for grabs in 4 locations along the route at the North Pole, South Pole, Santa’s Shed, and the Elf Hideout! So not only was this a nice little leg loosener after a tough first 10k, it also provided some great tree decorations for back home.

The final challenge of the day was a night time headtorch race, Rudolph’s Revenge 10k! As with the previous 10k earlier in the day, this race once again consisted of two 5k loops around the park. However it was a different course combining some of the Sprout Scuttle and Candy Cane routes that we had already ran. What was different from the other races (aside from the total darkness) was the introduction of the delightful ice cold rain being blasted into our faces; bleak is probably the best way to describe it! Haha.

However we endured the awful conditions and got around the course in just over an hour finishing in 35^th & 36^th places out of 116 finishers.

It was certainly a full-on day, and we were ready for a good long sleep when we finally arrived back home!

I believe we were the only Striders taking part this year. The Great Sprout Scuttle 10k was won by Stephen Geraghty in 37:47 and Rudolph’s Revenge was won by Stuart Spencer in 40:45.

Sprout Scuttle Results: