I was a little nervous ahead of this race as I’ve only ever attempted two, very short Hardmoors runs before and one of those was horrendous (many of our club members are still suffering flashbacks and Tracy is still warming herself up!) Fresh from a non-too-restful night in a caravan, I arrived at Hutton-le-Hole for the race briefing where Hardmoors organiser John Steele cheerily informed us that the race distance was 16 miles and that we weren’t actually going anywhere near Rosedale. The accuracy of Hardmoors run names leaves a lot to be desired…

We set off in blazing sunshine and ran steadily through a few fields, complete with crazy horses running amok. I’d initially planned on running with Mike but we got split up on a single-file stretch through the woods and I found myself catching up and passing Russ in a potato field (Hardmoors routes offer very varied terrain!). Eventually, I settled into a steady pace alongside a complete stranger who (thankfully) was happy to let some chatterbox run with her and we ran the rest of the way together.

The weather and scenery were both gorgeous as we ran across the moors and then headed down into the valley, taking in copious amounts of water, jelly babies and marshmallows at the (very friendly and super organised) checkpoints and enjoying the occasional ‘motivational’ sign. Up steep hills, through ankle-deep mud, nettles and head-height bracken, and along quiet country lanes, I loved every single minute of this run. Well, okay – I admit that the seemingly endless killer hill right at the end wasn’t pleasant, but my new running buddy and I still managed a sprint finish to complete the run in three and a half hours and with big silly grins on our faces. Maybe next time, I’ll tackle a full marathon distance race – after all, as John’s motivational signs might say, double the suffering = double the fun! Plus, you can guarantee a few extra, bonus miles so it’s very good value for money…