This race, now in its 16th year of running, was the seventh race in the 2026-27 Club Championship Calendar and it attracted 23 Sky Blues to the start line. What I really loved about this event was the whole atmosphere both before and after the race and sense it was well supported in the town. The weather may have helped as the dry sunny conditions continued – although it wasn’t a heatwave day so pretty perfect for racing. The town square, with the White Horse Inn on one side, was race HQ. Registration opened at 6.15pm that evening with race starting at 7pm (its held on a Friday evening before the Clun Festival on the Saturday). The entrance fee was £5 and the registration process quick, well organised and very friendly. There was a course map and also a map to show the area where you needed to live to qualify as a ‘local runner’. There was a short but informative briefing on the course – which was going to be slightly longer than previous years because of some fallen trees. It was well marked and marshalled throughout (except for the last field – but then the only way to go was downhill!) and there were two back runners. I had 5.58 miles/8.98km on my watch with 327m total ascent.
The race itself is best described as hilly but the climbing was all worth it with a long downhill (mostly) stretch home. When the horn sounded to start there was a pretty mad rush out of the Square and downhill over the bridge then it was into about a mile of climbing up to the top of Clun Hill (394m), initially on road but with the last 500m ish up a steep grassy field – I’m sure those at the front ran this but I walked it. But it was worth the effort as it flattened out there was about half a mile down across fields – the ground was hard but I found it very runnable and much more ankle friendly than the rough field margins of recent races. Dropping through a gate there was a flat section along a gravel track and it was a lovely opportunity to see runners in front including those already tackling the next hill. Some of the cattle alongside the track were going crazy with excitement and at one point I thought it was because we needed to go through their field, luckily this wasn’t the case and we actually came onto a lane that dropped down to Hobarris Farm. There was a sharp left hand turn (very well directed by a gentleman I presume was the farmer) down a gravel track and over a stream before turning left up what was probably an old green lane, this then took us to our first stile of the race (there were about half a dozen more) into a field and steepish climb up to the top of Pen-y-wern Hill (383m). We then dropped down to the road before a short climb up (about 150m) over another stile and a fast descent across a field dropping steeply down to a track cut through the bracken. We then started the woodland section, after a short climb up on a track it flattened out to follow a faint more technical path (although well marked) through the trees before dropping down onto a clearer path and fast descent of 500m back down to the road. The road continued down until we turned left and up a short sharp ascent it flattened out and then started a long descent of about 1 mile into Clun. I knew from running the ‘Into the Woods’ race a few years ago there was a stile into a field that took you back to town – but I couldn’t quite remember how far down the lane was and as we were now running straight into the sun it was difficult to see what lay ahead so I very nearly bowled into the marshall standing in the road directing the runners to the stile. Down across the field there was another stile before crossing over the bridge and running up into the town. It was lovely to see lots of people in the square cheering the 75 runners home. There was a medal and a cold drink in the pub to finish. There were cups for the first men and ladies both in the open and local classes and for first U18 boys and girls. Some of the donors of the cups were there to present them also. And big congratulations to Erin Walmsley, one of our juniors, for winning the U18 girls cup (I reckon the first of many)
The results were:
Eric Apperley 39:42 3rd overall
Gareth Leek 43:10
Max George 44:37
Steve Partridge 46:42
Stuart Austin 50:47
Sam Harper 51:38
Joe Lynch 52:36
Mike Bending 54:02
Liza Austin 57:56
Erin Walmsley 58:31
Tom Powell 58:59
Jamie Symonds 61:39
Steph King 61:55
Tori Dickinson 62:42
Guy Whitmarsh 63:52
Anya Walmsley 68:05
Sonia George 68:36 (picked up a calf injury on the run)
Frank Luscott 74:14
Bronwyn Preece 75:48
Roland Preece 75:48
Reachel Kenny 77:14
Mike Hayward 77:57
