Red Kite Trail Race

Race no. 20 Red Kite Trail Race 5 July 2015

One of 23 stiles in the race

Today's race was the longest to date in the challenge, The Red Kite Trail Race, an 8plus mile trail race in the County Durham's Derwent Valley.

I had done a recce. last Sunday with Derwent Valley Trailrunners and knew what to expect, a 100 yard dash along Front Street, Dipton, before turning onto a footpath through farm land before plunging downhill through woodland, then uphill to the finish. Sounds easy, doesn't it?

The reality as I discovered during the recce, was a series of stiles right from the start of the farm land. This required a fast start to the race if I was not to be caught in a queue at every stile.

At the gun I was away with the other whippets, they, of course, being forty years younger than this silver fox. But, I can still put in a spurt over a short distance, at one point recording a pace of 5.18.

Five runners got to the first stile before me, but having got away from the rest of the field there was no queue and this continued over the next half dozen stiles. In this way, I covered the first mile in 7.16, the second in 7.39 and we had plunged down some steep woodland paths.

Running through a couple of farms I had conceded a few places, but still reckoned I was in the top 10 places. We were now heading towards Hamsterley Mill, always on narrow, muddy paths and at one point splashed through a stream. Back into woodland, we were now in an area which was being forested. The track  widened, but at the expense of mud and tracked ruts from the heavy plant involved in the wood cutting. Now it was all uphill and my pace suddenly dropped from 8.28 for mile 4 to 10.39 for mile 5 and 10.41 for mile 6. A final lungbursting clmb for mile seven took me to the low of 11.31 and the conceding of a few more places.

One of these places conceded was to a lovely lady, white vest, red piping - Sunderland Strollers? We had a conversation during our forest stroll, in which she told me that she was definitely a road runner, not a trail runner.
" Did you do Tynedale 10K? "I asked.
 " No "she replied.
 " Blaydon?"
"Yes" she replied.
"Time?"
"39.51" said she.
"Well you were 22 seconds ahead of me" I responded.
 Should we have been saving our breath for the race? No, there is always time for a friendly chat among runners.

Now we were into the last mile which included the final climb of the 848 feet ascent in the race. With the top in sight I was able to raise the pace to 9.25 and finish in 18th position for 1hour 13.57 mins.

At the prizegiving I found that there were no age category prizes, but I think that I was first V60. For an entry fee of only £4.00 I was more than happy to settle for the moral victory.