By: Brian Jenkins

Race Date: 27^th October, 2024

This was my third go at this race, so I knew what to expect, and with it being in the last weekend in October, the Hallowe’en theme tradition was bound to be continued. After we parked-up in town we made our way to the Outwood Academy, the race village and place of the race start and finish lines, and the place where race numbers were to be picked-up. The academy itself provides a warm and dry waiting area before the race, not so much an issue this year (on a mild, dry and bright October morning) but was particularly welcome during my first visit where the quantity of rain was torrential prior to the start.

With this year’s race being the penultimate event in the Striders’ Road Race Championships / Leagues, a good showing by Striders was assured, and we (SCS) were the most numerous running club taking part (by some distance).

The start was up the steps from the race village (not far from the bag drop), and a Striders’ team photo was arranged by these steps, various photos were taken, as new Striders turned up, and others, with the photo having been taken, had moved on to their last-minute race preparations.

The race warm-up was in a car park next to the start line, with plenty of space for swinging limbs (unlike many races). We were then directed to the start marshalling area to wait for the off.

The race started, and the first obstacle was a mini roundabout which we swerved around (not that far beyond the start line) and then we set-off on the road to the National Trust’s Clumber Park. The road south demonstrates the race’s most obvious characteristic: undulation. This is unlikely to be the hilliest half you have ever done (if you have done many local halves), but the uphill sections are numerous (as are the downhill ones).

I was aware of the standings in my Striders’ Road Race League (“Toys R’ Us” League a.k.a. the 4^th Division) where I was knocked-off second place by a good-showing of a competitor in the previous competition race (that I was unable to attend due to injury). I needed a result from this race (fortunately the aforementioned competitor was not taking part) and so I set-off hard.

We were then sent into Clumber Park itself, and the trees there were in their full autumnal glory. There is a twisting route through the park with sections where you can see runners ahead of, and behind you, which was good as Striders shouted encouragement to those in different stages of the race.

Then there is a long wooded avenue of “motivational” signs, most of which I recognised from my last outing. One announced that the “complaints department was at the first water station”, some miles behind.

The route then leaves the park and goes through Worksop College, where the only undulations were provided by the many speed bumps on the road, back on to the main road and to the finish line.

I started at a pace that I was unable to maintain (my recent injuries are my preferred excuse) but I did manage to keep on going, and importantly (for me anyway) my result put me back into joint 2^nd position in my Road Race League (sharing the second place on the podium, probably only temporarily, but even so, well, you know, hope springs eternal).

Once over the finish line, everyone was given a bottle of water, we trekked past the event village, back to where we picked-up our race numbers, for the finishers’ goodies. We were given a long-sleeved finishers shirt (my second outing at this race was the year that they gave out t-shirts instead), a packet of biscuits (custard creams, seeing as you ask, but others were available) and a banana.

All-in-all a good road race, challenging, but not excessively so (rewarding effort), varied (mostly rural) scenery, and, a long-sleeved finisher’s shirt (a blessing for those with more race t-shirts than they know what to do with). However… water stations en route provided water in cups (not particularly practical for consuming on the run), but don’t let that put you off.

The race was won by: Samuel Roberts (Retford AC) in 01:08:03 and Eleanor Warren (St. Theresa’s AC) in 01:22:27 .

Striders’ Results: