Dig Deep Whirlow 10k.

I've had my eye on this race for a while, mainly because all of the trail races that I've done so far have been with Dark & White so I wanted to see how another company work. There were actually four races going on over the weekend, two ultras on Saturday and two shorter distance events on Sunday, being 12.12 miles and a 10k. I entered the 10k, I quite fancied the longer 12 miler but as I've been doing mainly short fell races over the summer I didn't think that I would have the stamina for the longer course.
It cost £15 to enter, the fee including a t-shirt. So about three times more expensive than the average fell race.
The event started at Whirlow Hall Farm, a working farm which is used as an educational facility for children with special needs in Sheffield. The farm is the main benificiary of the event. registration was in a large shed, along with various stands selling running gear, beer, coffee and burgers. All good stuff.

Starting at 10.20, we set off out of the farmyard on a wide track heading north. After a short road section we headed south through fields and into woodland. I kept a steady pace as I never properly get into my stride until I've ran a couple of kilometres, but did manage to make up some places as the route headed into woodland and down some steep and slippery muddy steps. Here I could let go, ignoring the steps and running through the mud to the sides passing quite a few others. Then it was onto a wide undulating woodland path, which opened out and led to a road crossing. Once across the road the route took us up Houndkirk Lane, and I mean up as its a climb. We then turned left into Lady Cannings Plantation, a piece of woodland known for its mtb trails, running firstly on singletrack then onto wide tracks, shared with the occasional mtb, with more climbing. Quite a bit more in fact. But soon we were back in the open, heading back towards Hounkirk Lane. On reaching the lane the 10k route turns left and the 12.12 runners turn right. Soon we were running down, retracing our steps, seeing the back markers still making their way up Houndkirk. Through the fields and into the woods we went, taking a slightly different route back to the start. I passed a few runners on the way back, but soon had someone on my shoulder. I left him on the downs but he made the ground up on the flats, and because I didn't know the course I was wary of upping the pace too much to shake him off. Within sight of the finish line he made his move, but I sprinted away and left him. We shook hands afterwards as is usual after a finish line sprint.

My time was 58:36 (official time 59:45). 37th out of 132 finishers

A good event I think, nice trails and plenty of climbing. It didn't excite me as much as a fell would would have, but then it was nice to run somewhere different in the Peaks. And the t-shirt is rather smart as well. I'm tempted to try the 12.12 next year.

Paul.