My 2018 challenge continued into February with my first ever “trail” half marathon. The word trail is used fairly loosely as it is a bridleway and a canal towpath for the majority of the way round and a tiny bit of road thrown in.

I assume with some good clear weather this would have been a fairly firm run without too much of a trail feel. Well the weather had other ideas around that! Will come onto that later!

This was also my first race as part of the visorclub, and there was another member of #teamblack running on the day!

Signing up to the race was simple, race organised through crazylegs. Fairly cheap entrance fee for a half marathon and was limited to 500 places. Oddly for the second race in a row I noted that drop out rate was relatively high, it looked like around 20% didn’t show up as there were only around 400 finishers. Comms leading up to the race were good, pre-race pack included all the information I needed about getting to the race, parking, course etiquette for the bridleway etc. I wish I had found the Facebook page for the race earlier in the build-up but was nice to see all the pictures and comments on there after the race.

So, the build up to race day…. Cold & Wet. Fingers crossed things were going to get better for the weekend but as Sunday came around it became obvious that this was going to be a race hit by the elements. Not only was rain forecast but intermittent snow. Hmmmm!

From reading the pack we were aware of limited parking, Rose Hill Marple train station is right next to the finish and the registration point so was a perfect place to park. We got there nice and early and had no problems getting a space. Once registration opened we made a dart for the pub (sadly not for a beer) and got our race number and used the facilities inside. We still had around an hour before the start so made a second dash back to the car and sat in the warm! By the time we got back to the car the carpark was filling up quickly, it wasn’t long before there were no spaces left.

Around half an hour before heading to the start line we thought we were going to get lucky with the weather, things cleared up briefly but that was short lived. Just before we needed to do our stretches and get warmed up the skies turned black and it started to snow! Just what we needed.

Anyways we braved the snow and headed to the start line, thank goodness for multiple layers! Thankfully the snow and rain held off as the race begin so we were at least able to start the race relatively dry!

The first 6 miles of the race were down the bridleway, mostly flat but very muddy in places. As a slower runner I found myself slowing down whilst others dodged puddles first and then I followed them through the best route. There were a few tight gates on the course which caused a bit of a backlog on the way out. The snow/sleet hit again after a few miles and was on and off for a while.

After 6 miles you come off the bridleway, up some stairs, over the road, through a car park and then onto the canal. I was looking forward to this bit after an hour of muddy running. Little did I know what was coming ahead of me…..

More puddles, even more mud, and less room to manoeuvre. It was a case of dodge as best you can and avoid slipping into the canal. Also at this point the weather started to get worse. The snow became heavier, the hail stones got bigger and my feet got wetter! I was thankful for my racecheck visor as it helped keep most of it out of my eyes!

3-4 tricky miles of canal towpath and we once again cut back onto the bridleway for the last few mile slog home. By this point I was wet, muddy and I think I was losing feeling in my feet. But you know what, I didn’t care. I was actually enjoying the race.

There is very little support on the way round but what support there was, especially from the marshals was warm and encouraging. I really felt for them standing out on a cold/wet/snowy day!

Back to the last few miles, by this point I didn’t care about the mud and puddles, I just went for it. I figured I couldn’t get much worse and I was on my way back to the car so would soon be out of the trainers/socks!

A friendly welcome at the finish line and rewarded with a small but nice enough medal. No goody bags but bananas, protein drinks, water and the nicest flap jacks I have had in a long time. As I was waiting for my wife to finish the marshal was nice enough to help me out with a silver foil cover to stop me from getting to cold.

Would I run this again, yes! The elements didn’t put me off and would love to run this route on a nicer day. Thanks to the organisers for putting on a great race. Loved it!