It may be a bold statement, but Trentham might be the nicest of Stokes 6 towns- home to the Wedgwood Estate, Trentham Monkey Village, and Trentham Gardens (which you can get to experience for free if you do their parkrun, but you do need to leave straight after your run) . So I was quite looking forward to this run, starting at Wedgwood Cricket Club.

I’ll be honest, it was rather a disorganised start- upon arriving was stood in a queue for race numbers for half an hour- with no race numbers sent out before hand and only a very small numbers of volunteers designated to hand them out. As the time till start ticked closer, and the queue showed no sign of getting shorter, the organisers wisely decided to put back the start time, initially by 15 mins, but we ended up setting off around 25 minutes after the planned start. There were also not many toilets for the 296 runners attending – 2 stalls and 2 urinals for the men, and by the looks of the queue for the ladies, probably about the same there. The start line, though pretty, next to a bridge over a lilypond, was also a little awkward, with runners spread across a T junction at the bottom of the hill, and a need to shuffle out of the way as a car decided to come through. Definitely some points for Trentham Running Club to review for next year!  (N.B.: Looking at past attendances, there was 100 more runners than when it ran in 2023, and 150 more than 2022, so these niggles may have been due to the growth of the event?)

All that said, once the countdown had been done, it was time to focus on the race! An unforgiving start, with the beginning half a kilometer being straight up a hill and into the lovely little village of Barlaston, before continuing uphill for the first half 5km of the race to the appropriately named “Rough Close”. (Because its up the roughest hill on the route, with a 7% gradient in places, and because this was the turnaround point, and from now on we’d be getting closer to the finish!)

A little bit of pavement running as we ran along a bit of a busier road, before we turned off to a side road and were welcomed by the sight of a bit of downhill, and the water station. The volunteers reassured me the next hill was the last which both reassured and scared me- I thought we were done with the hills! Thankfully it was just a small one, and at the top was the 6km marker, and the promise it was downhill from here. The next couple of kilometers were quite steep downhills, losing 80m of elevation over 2km, before a flat kilometer as we headed back into the wedgwood estate. The final kilometer was a slight downhill again, perfect for burning out the tank to try and get your target finish time, and across the line (or to do a silly jumping pose for the camera and lose all your pace).

I really liked the option they had with medals here- you could opt not to have a medal for a cheaper entry price- better for the wallet and for the environment. I’m sure other places do it, but this was my first time seeing it, and am a fan.

Overall an enjoyable run, but maybe some organisation improvements to be made for next year!

First male finisher was Roberto Ortolan (MSen) of Sphinx AC in 33.47 (chip time). First lady was Georgia Stanfield (FSen) in 39.19 (chip time), of Trentham Running Club.

One Steel City Strider took part – results: