After missing out on Wilmslow Half due it being the weekend where pretty much every race in the country was cancelled due to snow I had to get another race booked in to ensure I kept on top of my medal a month challenge. Looking locally there wasn’t loads going but I found Caldervale and blindly signed up to it. It was really early in the morning so didn’t look into what I was getting myself in for.

The race was a perfect distance, the week before the manc mara and this was a 10 mile run which was what I had put down in my training. Why not get a medal for doing a distance I was going to do anyway! More reading into the event and I realised it was up and down hills, oops! Ah well it would be good training and push my legs.

Caldervale is a small village in the Lancashire countryside. Driving through the country roads to get to it I knew it was going to be a scenic race. Pulling into the village there was a social club who had donated their car park to the runners. You could park down the roads and also a bit closer to the finish but parking filled up quickly there. The social club was still close enough to race HQ and was a good place to not get caught up in the runners at the end.

We nipped into racehq to pick up our bibs and got chatting to the race organiser. Was nice to find out about some of the other events they put on, you don’t always hear much about the smaller events which is a shame as they really have a lot to offer! The organisers were really friendly and encouraging about the race and put a smile on our face before we even started.

Racehq was also in the local village hall, there was a cake sale in the main hall and hot food/pies being sold in another room. I cant vouch for it but I was told the pies were amazing!

We headed over to the starting point, which was next to the cenotaph and waited for the race to start. A lot of runners were a bit confused as there was no real start line or timing strip to get runners going. The race organiser pulled up in their car and got runners going, my only minor complaint here was that I couldn’t hear anyone say go and most runners only knew the race was going due to other runners starting to run. I just started my garmin at the cenotaph and it wasn’t too far off the gun time in the end.

First few miles eased you into the race, small inclines and some nice downhill sections to pick up the pace. It is worth noting that this race is on open roads. There were not too many cars around and generally drivers were fairly considerate to the runners (other than one idiot in a Volvo that was speeding around everyone!)

The course was lovely and scenic passing many farms. It is lambing seasons so nice to see lots of lambs as you are running around.

Around 4-5 miles in the elevation started to kick in, steady incline for a little while. Then around the 10k mark was the big one. Very steep incline which a lot of people were walking up. Stubbornness kicked in for me and I refused to walk, slow jog to the top and then a lovely fast downhill section over the next couple of miles.

There were water stations at miles 5 and 7, I usually take my own so this was no issue for me but I did think 5 miles was a long way for the first water stop.

Another couple of small hills around miles 8 and 9 before a final fast downhill into the village and over the finish line. Wasn’t expecting much from my time but came in at 1:34:34 which is was really happy with given the hills!

I didn’t get caught up too much but there were cars leaving near the end when people were in the last half mile. Some of the slower runners will have been having to dodge the cars leaving the car park as the lanes were pretty tight. Not much you can do about this on an open road course but something to consider.

This is the first year I have done some of the smaller independent races and its nice to go into them with an open mind. I don’t expect much from them but have been very surprised. This was one of the friendliest races I have done. Not much in the way in the way of crowd support but the marshals were fantastic. One thing that blew me away about this race was the supportiveness of other runners. People who were struggling up hills were encouraging each other and people I was overtaking were shouting well done, keep on going to me. Great feeling of camaraderie between the runners.

As for finishing goodies, it was just a medal and a bottle of water. The medal however is really nice and on a par with a lot of the more expensive races I had done. We didn’t bother going back for food in the village hall, which is a shame, but by this point we were ready to drive home.

Thank you to the race organisers, other runners, all the locals who were marshalling and supporting us on the day. It was fun and we will be back.