Thurlstone Chase 2021


 

Race date: Saturday, 3 July 2021

I don't know why I never knew about this one before. Thurlstone is only about half a mile from my house. 

Apparently the Thurlstone Chase is usually timed to coincide with the village's gala. Sadly, this year the gala wasn't on but the race went ahead. 

The pre-race email said that trail shoes would be fine, but sadly mine had given up the ghost so I took both road and fell, neither of which turned out to be entirely suitable. The walk up from the car to the start field convinced me to wear fell shoes, which was probably the better option of the two. 

On arriving at the start field, I handed a fiver to two blokes in a camping tent and did the usual catch up with people and half-hearted warmup. Then we were off, in my first mass-start race since COVID.

The race is a clockwise loop around fields and farmland, mostly trail with a couple of tarmac sections and a bit of pasture. Conditions were fairly dry despite the morning rain, so the ground was hard, making the pasture part difficult especially. The route had been altered to avoid some aggressive cattle.

After a lap of the football field, we set off up the main climb, about 250ft across three-quarters of a mile, on a farm track. I made a slow start, being quite ginger on my mystery-injured leg, but started to reel people in towards the top. We then turned right onto a tarmac downhill section, which really wasn't good in fell shoes but also wasn't too long. 

The main climb and descent done, the mid-section of the race was a pleasant undulating run on a mixture of terrain, during which the field spaced out quite a lot and I managed to do a little bit of overtaking, before we came to climb two, which cruelly climbs past the finish line before dropping you back. Possibly luckily, given the high humidity and temperature, I was stuck behind a slower runner and there wasn't room to overtake. If I'd gone out at my natural pace I might have blown up. I passed him at the top and then it was downhill to the football field, with a short sprint to finish. I could hear another runner behind me, so I gave it some welly and stayed ahead.

Then it was a bottle of pop and a spot prize (socks for me) and home!

I'd happily have another go at this one, and I probably will.

I was 38th of 83 runners in 34:27, just ahead of Lee Mills, the only other Strider in the race. The winners were Joseph Carnelly of Bingley in 26:15 and Ruth Jones of Salford Harriers in 27:28.

Full results: https://www.fellrunner.org.uk/results/4d304c6c-25ad-4f0b-aa66-d84f85b60ccf

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