By Jim MacDonald
This 20k trail race takes place in Swaledale and is a circular route mostly on good bridleways with about 1,800 feet of ascent. Its difficulty rating is described as moderate to hard in Trail Running magazine so I approached this one with trepidation!
Although not a stroll in the park, it turned out to be easier than expected. For some reason I find it much less tiring running uphill when off road and in the midst of such beautiful and peaceful countryside than when on concrete encrusted, traffic dodging terrain. I even heard a cuckoo cuckooing.
Starting with a riverside path then a climb up to Apedale Head, the route starts and finishes in Reeth and was well marshalled and flagged throughout.
128 runners took part. The winner finished in 1 hour 24 and the tail runner came in at 2.44. I was somewhere in between.
Afterwards we all went to the pub, which was nice.
