A beast of a race, taking you into from the top of a hill, into the valley and then straight up the infamous "hell steps" back up to the top of the gorge.

This race was part of the Relish Running Races Cheddar Gorge Festival. Relish always seem to organise great races and this was no exception. The weather in the lead up to the race had been horrendous, and I really felt for those doing the longer distances as they ended up doing 2-4 loops of the 10k instead of the original half/mara routes. Having since seen the pictures of the original route, this was absolutely the right call as there were torrents of water that would normally be trickly streams.

Being part of the outdoors festival, there's a lot going on around the race. There's a bar, lots of food stalls, coffee vans, walking tours and best of all, some really interesting and inspirational talks.

The race itself is really tough, made more so by the slippery conditions after the aforementioned weather. There's a lot of elevation change in this race, including some fairly steep descents and some *very* steep ascents (hell steps live up to their name!). It's absolutely worth the effort though. The views are spectacular, and the technical nature of the race means you're never going to get bored. The terrain varies between rocky, muddy and grass and it's a beautiful course. 

I'd 100% recommend doing this, even if it's more of a walk than a run. Fantastic race, brilliant atmosphere, loads of cool stuff going on.

I love trying to seek out unique races and found this after reading an article in one of the running magazines. It was organised really well and coincided with a national trust atmosphere which added to the atmosphere. It was friendly and fun and i would definitely recommend - although the trail run was tough!