One Fyne Night 10k
On Saturday evening, Pearl Barnes was running the One Fyne Night 10k by Channel Events, the first of her two races this weekend.
Utilising the beautiful Fyne Court Estate in Somerset near the Quantock Hills, runners complete two undulating laps on tracks and trails through parkland, woods and walled gardens.
Pearl said the long grass and rutted ground along with lots of twists and turns made it tricky underfoot. However, she enjoyed running the two laps as you got a second chance at the hills! She finished in 1:08 and first in her age group.
The Roseland August Trail & Ultra Running Festival (The RAT)
Also on Saturday, Deane Andrew, Keeley Phillips and Mary Roberts were in Cornwall for Mudcrew’s Roseland August Trail and Ultra Running Festival (The RAT) based at Porthpean in St Austell Bay.
With a choice of four distances from 11 to 64 miles, the races are all off road coastal runs along a stunning stretch of South Cornwall coast path between St Anthony’s Head on the Roseland Peninsula and Porthpean.
Deane took on the RAT Plague, a 64mile out and back course between Porthpean and St Anthony’s Head. The race started just after midnight with fire, flares and drums with a 20 hour cut-off for completion. After several hours of night running, Deane said it was a pleasure to run as the sun rose.
He found the second half after the turnaround especially tough going and was very pleased to finish in 19:03 having covered over 4000m of elevation along the way. This was Deane’s first time running 100km; a great achievement.
Keeley ran the Red RAT, the 20mile point to point course starting from Portloe with over 1400m of elevation on the way back to Porthpean. She completed this challenging route in 4:48.
Mary took on the White RAT, the 11mile point to point course starting from Gorran Haven. With almost 800m of elevation, Mary said this included “plenty of very enjoyable coastal steps”. She completed this tough course in 2:25.
Scorrier House Gecko Gathering
On Sunday, Pearl was at the beautiful setting of the Scorrier House private estate in the Cornish countryside to run her second race of the weekend, the Scorrier 10k.
This is part of a multi distance event day by Purple Gecko Events. Despite feeling tired after yesterday’s race, she had another great run enjoying lots more hills! Pearl commented the course was actually almost 11k and she was pleased to finish in 1:10 and again first in her age category.
Team GB Under 20 Mountain Running Trial
Also on Sunday, Luke Stannus was up in the Lake District to take part in the Team GB Under 20 Mountain Running Trial.
Based at Whinlatter Forest the 8km course started from Thornthwaite for a loop around the stony forest tracks taking in almost 400m of elevation. Running against a highly competitive field, Luke said it was a tough day out but a great experience. Official results and positions are pending but he flew round the course in just over 35mins!
