Tuesday the 4th July and it was finally time for the jewel in the crown of the summer BDL series. Moody skies and a slight breeze greeted the volunteers and a few very keen runners as they arrived at Millfields carpark to setup for the Carsington BDL; a course renowned for its beauty and brutality in equal measure. Spearheaded by Lewis and Holly the crack team of helpers soon had the course set up and before long the bulk of the runners began to arrive and prepare for the race of the year. Once all the cars had been expertly guided in to place it was time for the last stragglers to make their way out to the dam wall for the start.
The runners gathered on the windswept path and after a few parting words of advice from Lewis we were off! A relatively flat opening kilometre soon gave way to Carsington’s notoriously undulating terrain, and as we hit the first of many hills the runners who had gone out too fast (yours truly) went backwards and the runners who had paced it well (seemingly everyone else) surged ahead. After another 6.5km of torturous ups and downs the runners finally made it to the finish chute to be greeted by the smiles and words of encouragement from the WRC volunteers.
Out on course our very own Steve E and Richard W were locked in a head to head battle, eventually finishing within a second of each other with Steve just pipping Richard and equalling his best result of the series so far. Next home was Glen B bagging his best result yet in 73rd and not far behind him came Adam L and Simon E in 99th and 100th respectively with Jake E rounding out the men’s team in 126th.
First home for the women’s team was Bethany H finishing in a super strong 29th place followed by Kat D in 39th and Jenny G coming in in 64th. Holly Taylor saw everyone home safe finishing in 97th.
Full results available at:
https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=321046
Despite the challenging course it was a lovely evening and our small but mighty running club put on a great show (both the runners and the volunteers).
The next and final race of the series is at Shipley Park on the 8th August.