The Steel City Trail 10 series is one of my absolute favourites. Every 2 months, there’s the opportunity to discover trails in a different area of our brilliant hometown, often taking in places I’ve never run before, for the bargain price of £2, which goes towards supporting the areas in which we’ve been racing. October saw a new location – exotic Chapeltown, in the north of Sheffield. Not somewhere I’ve had an opportunity to explore previously so I was really looking forward to it.

The weather forecast for race day was, to put it frankly, vile, with a yellow warning of strong winds and heavy rain in place. Fortunately things didn’t turn out quite as dire as expected, and while I wouldn’t say it was a nice day weather-wise it certainly wasn’t bad enough to put me or the other 38 runners off and made for some type-2 fun conditions underfoot.

A trip across town took us to the race HQ of Chapeltown Park, where I found some of my ancestors on the war memorial and paid my respects before helping out with registration. There was a quick race briefing whilst huddling under some trees and then we headed over to the start line. Like all good fell races, we set off with a lap of a field before looping round the park, then being sent out onto the Transpennine Trail. I was jogging along quite happily at this point, proper paths and nothing too hilly so far, easy! We were prevented from accidentally running to Meadowhall by the cheery face of Robin, who merrily sent us uphill and onto the first traily sort of trail of the day. This is where the fun really began!

The next kilometre or so wended through woodland, it was beautiful, it was autumnal, and it was very very muddy. Characterised by ankle deep slop, neck high nettles and the occasional steep climb, I slipped and slid my way along, losing sight of fellow runners both ahead of and behind me. The course was well marked and flagged though (thank you volunteers!) so this wasn’t a problem. I was doing quite a good job of avoiding the worst of the quagmires at this point and my feet were still just about dry enough to be called merely damp. A right turn and a cartwheely-arms kind of downhill brought us back onto the TPT not far from the park, and we set off again to where we now knew Robin was waiting, ready to send us on a larger loop. It was at this point that the short but brutal XC Relays of the day before decided to make themselves felt in my legs, and the going was tough for me from thereon in.

A big climb followed at the start of the larger loop, again on woodland paths, this time to the vroom vroom soundtrack of motorbike engines. As we reached the top of the hill, we were greeted by one of my oldest friends Sam, who runs for HRRC and had been given the best marshalling spot for the potential of hilarious spectating – the top of a steep, sharp drop, with a HUGE puddle at the bottom. We’d been warned in the race briefing to look out for this bit, so I felt well prepared. Sam said a number of runners had taken advantage of a helpful horizontal branch to Tarzan their way across, but I determined I was not tall, graceful or badass enough for such shenanigans and chose a more cautious tip toe approach. The puddle led on to what can only be described as a small swamp, which I declared the point at which my feet transitioned to “definitely wet”. For this reason, when I reached the next puddle – long and thin this time – I decided “fuck it, I’ll go through the middle”. Reader, this was an unwise choice. Four steps in, the water was past my knees and still a lot of puddle to go. I managed to drag myself out, pleased to be far enough away from other runners that nobody could hear my dramatic shrieks.

Squelching my way along, the next marshall point saw me reach my husband Jim, who was sensibly not racing today having also participated in the previous day’s XC antics. His position was described as “next to the burnt out car” and marked the start of a roughly 1km loop around the top of an old colliery. This bit was my favourite section of the race, I’ve never run on anything like it! Crunchy coal underfoot, a light mist hiding the rest of the world from view, and thousands of mushrooms nonchalantly thriving. It sounds bleak, and I suppose it was, but in a surreal, fantastical, magical kind of way. I imagine it’s the closest I’ll ever come to running on the moon.

A quick photo stop at the burnt out car and into the last few kms of the race. We were back on a hardpacked track by this point and absolutely surrounded by fly agaric mushrooms. I’d been on a foraging course the week before and now know that a fly agaric is a surefire sign that there will be porcini nearby. It’s coming to the end of shroom season now but autumn 2025 could yield a lucrative porcini based side hustle. I was finding the going a proper slog now and lost two places, but was really enjoying the adventure and saw no reason to rush – it just makes it easier for me to achieve a course PB next time! Eventually we came back into the woods and a welcome downhill section leading right back to the TPT. A final loop of the park, with a hilly field and set of steps that felt much steeper the second time around, a victory lap of the field and back to the bandstand and the finish line.

This race absolutely had it all. One of the most varied and fun routes I’ve ever been lucky enough to run on, all just a short drive from home. I really can’t recommend the Steel City Trail 10 races enough, they’re challenging but so rewarding and incredibly well supported by the organisational team. The last one of the 2024 series takes place on Sunday 15th December, join the Facebook page for all the details and make sure you save the date!

The winners were Joseph Harding and Jenny Cartmell both of HRRC in 38:08 and 46:32 respectively. There were 39 finishers.

Full results here: Chapeltown Results – Oct 24 (1)