Sandstone Trail Race

This 'race' was re-started by Helsby RC in 2011. Officially it's not a race, rather a Long Distance Walking event, but they allow runners to take part as well (& do record times, if only to the nearest minute). It covers the whole of the Sandstone trail, from Whitchurch to Frodsham, with the distance varying between 33 and 34 miles, depending upon where you look (and my Garmin said 33.4).

Registration is from 6am, so it's not for those that like a lie-in ! You're bussed down to Whitchurch, with a start at ~ 815. The local Tescos was a bit surprised when they were invaded by a load of runners looking for a bit of last minute relief, but they didn't seem to mind too much !

The route itself is a great mixture of trail, starting by the canal-side, moving on to flatfish fields, then a few bumps around Pickerton & Beeston, a bit more flat, and then the pull up into Delamere, and the final sting-in-the-tail at Frodsham.

Couple of bits of excitement on the way - one was finding one of the runners who had pushed himself too hard & was in a bad way; cue for a lot of runners standing around him saying "who's got a phone?", "where are we?", "what number do we call ?" but we got it all sorted in the end; and right at the end we came to church where there was a wedding, and they'd parked the wedding cars right in front of the direction sign for where we were to go; cue for more runners standing scratching their heads until we found the sign !

So it took 6 hours. Lots of food was eaten on the way. Lots of chat, as you tend to group up with folks running the same pace. The views were fantastic (unfortunately my camera skills didn't do it justice, so no photo worth posting) and the weather was even good !. What more can you want ?!.

If you fancy doing something after your next marathon, then have a think about this one

Dave