Race Date: Saturday 20th July 2024

Race Report by Robin Nelson

When I signed up for the Arlington Court Canter, I thought I’d be blazing a trail at an obscure race in the West Country. Then I found Al Cook’s race report from 2021… and then I bumped into him on Barnstaple high street 😆 More proof that you’re never more than 6ft from a Strider; but should anyone find themselves down in Devon one July, here’s my addition to the Striders race library.

The Arlington Court Canter comes under the affiliation of the ARC (Association of Running Clubs), some kind of rebel breakaway alternative to England Athletics. So no £2 discount or RunBritain/Power of 10 stats for this one. There are 5 and 10k trail races to choose from; like Al in 2021, I’d opted for the 10k.

We set off crunching down the gravel drive from directly in front of Arlington Court, but were soon doing high knees across a hillside of long grass, the start of a varied and hilly route.

Around 4km in, I witnessed a fall; a runner who’d lost a couple of places on an uphill tried to regain them (and then some) by bounding down the other side, terrain comparable to a looser, stonier version of our Limb Valley descent. He went sprawling, and by the time he was back up and had taken a breather, four of us had stopped (he finished the race, last seen getting checked over in the medical tent).

Of my handful of races this year, the 244m of elevation at Arlington is only topped by Parkwood Springs SCT10. I’ve not raced over 10k yet in 2024 and I think I’m missing the fitness those long races bring, as the biggest climb reduced me to a walk near the top. When swapping notes at the finish and a runner from Ilfracombe suggested the hills might be more than I’m used to in Sheffield, I bit my tongue (is that a Strider membership insta-revoke?).

I found this race tough; a shout of “half way” came when I imagined I’d done 7 or 8km, not a good sign; but it was well marked with friendly, encouraging marshals, and I finished with a nice chat to a local about her visit to Graves parkrun.

I was the sole Strider among 92 finishers. John Bickham (unaffiliated) won the men’s race in a time of 42:35. The women’s race was won by Samantha Baker of South Molton Stugglers in a time of 47:02.

Strider Results