Race Date: Saturday 27th May 2023
Race Report by: Emily Green

Following the high of practically killing myself at Eyam Half, I rode the post race euphoria and found myself googling races occurring in the south west of Engalnd whilst on my ‘holiday’!! I came across Ivybridge 10K on the first evening of our holiday! Perfect, only had to persuade Sophie to also take part in a race that started at 6.30pm and she landed in Heathrow off her 2 week honeymoon at 12.30pm, plenty of time and a perfect training plan carried out!? Because  she’s probably crazier than me, she said yes and signed up!

The race is described as relatively fast, despite the steep hill from Bittaford to Moorhaven. The last 6km of the route are almost all downhill, making for a fast 2nd half of the race. Steep hill I thought, I’m from the mighty steel city, we eat hills for breakfast. This will be epic.

Saturday 27th May came and it just kept getting hotter and hotter and to top it off, the top BBC news story was that the electronic passport gates at Heathrow had gone into meltdown and stopped working meaning there here massive queues through passport control! Not the most ideal start to my holiday. Luckily, the electronic passport system got back up and running just as Sophie stepped into passport control, meaning she made a mad dash for the front of the line. On finally getting to the car and putting the destination into Waze (other navigation apps available) only to find out her ETA was 5.40pm, we just prayed for no delays!

As Sophie hadn’t signed up before going on Honeymoon, she didn’t have her race kit so arrived with 40 minutes until race start in a summer dress and glittery sandals, very apt for the weather but not for racing and quick change in the portaloo provided and she was ready in her new carbon trainers!

I went for a quick warm up/get the legs moving but was already extremely hot just from breathing and we made our way to the start. I put myself near the front and a marshall spotted my top and thanked me for coming so far to race, I didn’t mention that I was already down for a holiday!

The gun went off, and I set off on a short downhill for around 200m doing 3:05 km pace…ridiculous and then it was a gradual climb for 2 and a half kilometres before ‘that’ hill. I arrived at it and thought $*** this is like bloody Cobnar. 40-odd metres of climb in less than 400m and then a further gradual climb until 4 kilometres in 20 odd degree heat…remembering Eyam, it was another grit your teeth and show these southerners what northern grit was!

On reaching the top, I thought, yes, it’s all downhill from here! What they fail to mention is it is net downhill however, it undulates and after the killer of the hill in the early part of the race, every slight up is painful and the burn in my legs was competing with the sunburn I was gaining on my face and shoulders! There were 2 water stations during the race one at 5km which I skipped, read my previous reports for Dewsbury and Eyam to know why! Then one at 7km which I threw over my head and I’m pretty sure it sizzled! From then on, it was a count down to the finish with a few sharp turns in the last 2 km and the final 360-degree hairpin bend with 200m to go into the rugby club car park and the finish line. Not as quick as my Dewsbury time but with the temperature and hills in this one I’ll take it and 10th female overall and 3rd in my age category! The t-shirt was worth the pain and getting to represent striders with my little sister was the icing on the cake.

The race was won by Jim Cole of Tavistock Run Project in 32:32 and the first female, in a new course record, was Rebecca Ezra-Ham of Tamar Trotters in 36:33.

Striders results: