Race report by Andy K:
Last night I did the Rivington night half marathon which appeared to be 2 laps of all the worst bits of Gareth’s club trail runs stitched together.
I’d done a few road half marathons before but this was my first ever trail race so I’d been slowly dreading it all week. However the promise of a “glow in the dark” medal made me grab my head torch and get to the start line.
It was a tough start as the first 2 miles or so were all uphill pointy rocky paths but I soon felt better as other runners were also taking walking breaks to catch their breath. I picked up the pace as it levelled out along Georges Lane but that soon disappeared during the plod into the wind up towards 2 Lads.
Thankfully as I turned onto the surfaced paths, the headwind turned to a tailwind and it felt like I flew past 2 Lads and back to the Shack. Another plod up and round the Pike seemed designed to drain my morale but the downhill through the terraced gardens and lower Rivi to finish the first lap was a relative dream.
I felt more confident on the second lap having already got through it once and was making good time making it back round to the Shack.
Earlier in the day I’d been lucky enough to scan Rachel H’s barcode for her 350th parkrun. I obviously had this in the back of my mind as I turned it into a duathlon and dived over a rock and straight into the middle of the only big puddle on the course. Not to be deterred I brushed myself off and turned up towards the Pike.
With heavy legs and a handful of jelly babies from the food truck, I was over the moon to finish with an official time of 2:11:19 and to come 53rd out of 184 runners
Unfortunately my phone had taken in too much water to get a photo with my medal afterwards but thankfully dried out in time to let me get the biggest mixed kebab I could on the way home.
It was a brilliant and challenging event and I’m proud of myself for doing it even if the medal doesn’t actually glow that much.
Safe to say I’ve no intention of running around Rivi again for a while now… well not until Wednesday night anyway 😁
