Race Date: Saturday 5th August 2023

I entered the Blistering Bingley Trail 10km race a couple of weeks before the event was due to take place. Just another low key event I thought, and with that put it to the back of my mind. It was only when the race day instructions came through a few days before the event that I sat up and took note. The instructions included the phrase “the 10km has been put back to a 10.00am start to avoid clashing with the local parkrun” which of course opened up the obvious possibility. A quick bit of research revealed that the nearest parkrun was only a 15 minute jog from the start of the 10km race, so of course the double was on. My morning went something like this.

7.30am: I left home for the 50 mile drive to the West Yorkshire town of Bingley.

9.00am: I lined up with 72 other parkrunners to tackle the Myrtle parkrun. This 4 lap, hilly course was a mix of paths and wet grass with plenty of twists and turns so definitely not a p.b. course. Conscious of what was ahead I tried to pace it so that I still had something left at the end for the main race. I was happy with 16^th place overall and 1^st MV65.

9.30am: I returned to my car, did a quick change from road shoes to trail shoes before the 15 minute jog along the local canal towpath to the start of race two.

10.00am: Nicely warmed up I lined up on the canal towpath for the start of the Bingley Trail 10km race. In comparison with the parkrun this was a more technical, muddy, twisty, off road 2-lap course through the local woods and trails. It was organised by the It’s Grim up North team and came with their trade mark blingy medal, cakes, drinks, chocolates and even hot potatoes and hot dogs this time. There were just 37 runners in this race which gave plenty of opportunity to take the wrong turn if not careful. Having just passed 2 runners on the first lap I took what I thought was the correct turn only to see said two runners in front of me again some 500 metres further along the course. I did pass them for a second time later in the race commenting that I had taken the scenic route. I finished 3^rd male and 3^rd overall in this race.

11.30am: After sampling the post race food and drinks on offer and chatting with other runners I jogged back to the car for the drive home making it 12.5 miles of running for the morning.

I was the sole representative from Steel City Striders in both races.

10km trail results:

Eren Icel (unattached) won the race in 46:27 and Lydia Hastie (unattached) was first female in a time of 1:00:22. Striders result was as follows: