James Herriot Trail Race

Castle Bolton, Wensleydale, Sunday, July 29, 2012

14km

Melanie Hudson

MelanieI arrived at Castle Bolton but didn’t see any other Striders. This is a one loop, 14k trail race. I had told myself I wouldn’t push too hard and just enjoy it, so I was aiming to average 10 minute miles. I had been warned it was hilly but I hadn’t really anticipate the hill starting at only 400m into the race and for it then to carry on for 3 miles!!! By 3 miles I was only averaging 12 minute miles, hmm I needn’t have worried about going too fast. There was a much needed water station at this point and then a lovely downhill stretch for about a mile, wheeeee. Ha I should have known that couldn’t have been it for hills and at mile four there was a steep hill. Not only that but as I turned the corner the weather completely changed and I was running into a cold wind, it was pelting it down with icy rain, I was frozen. Thankfully the hill was steep but short and on turning the corner at the top we came out of the freak bit of weather and back to just a breezy, dull but mild conditions. From this point onwards it was mainly downhill and enjoyable. There was another water station at mile 6 where the marshal commented on how he had got the water fresh out of the ground that morning, being a little OCD I was hoping he was joking. I managed to make up a lot of time comfortably and finished averaging 9 min 40 miles.

It was a lovely scenic course, you could see for miles and took us through countryside and moorland. It was mostly on proper footpaths but they were rocky so you had to watch your feet and there were some sections on grass. I went for lunch in the Castle coffee shop and asked for some tap water, the waitress said it will be a little discoloured because it comes from a natural spring. Eek I guess the Marshall wasn’t joking about where the water had come from :o.

Hopefully I will bump into other Striders next year, just don’t drink the water there.

Runners snake up and beyond the hill

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