 I know this is a popular event with KADS, this was my first experience of it, in fact of any event consisting of stages. After obsessively checking the weather all week to see when the heat wave going to break, it was a relief to see cooler temperatures expected on the day. Although I can’t say it felt cool in the park at the start with the sun beating down on us as we queued for our numbers and timers. The route is made up of 11 running stages totalling 13 miles, broken up by walking sections of around 2 miles in total. It was a pleasant surprise to find that a large part of the route was on wooded trail paths. Less pleasant was the elevation, majority of the course was either going very sharply up or very sharply down! Made it hard to get into a rhythm as even going down you had to be careful of tree routes etc. Which unfortunately got the better of Karen who ended up face down! Thankfully she has perfected her landing, and got away with only a few grazes, cleaned up by a first aider who seemed to appear out of nowhere!  Race firsts - at one point being followed by the tail bike who informed us, yes we were last! But he was ahead of his usual schedule as quite a few had dropped out. That made us all kick in a bit to get to the end, and overtook a few people in the process. Overall I enjoyed it, I think I would probably do it again, but with a bit more hills training and cooler temperature if possible. Well done to all the KADs who have taken part in this race over the weekend. Thanks to Lisa, Caroline, Karen and Michelle for the support and encouragement, we all got each other round, in pretty tough conditions. Emily  Thanks to our club secretary Nick Tennant for this report from the June 2026 edition of The Trunce Fell Race Series. This report is a mirror on reflection of me joining KADS - Why didn't I do this before!
We set off from Dom's house at 5 and travelled to the Trunce HQ shortly after six. I brought £3 cash for entry, and a change of shoes and socks because I knew we would cross three streams during the race. We all ran to the start. Sam and I did a shorter warm up of 0.75 miles, while Dom and Ryan did a long warm up of 1.25 miles. It was warm but not too hot and I started the race with some trepidation. We ran along the tarmacked path for a bit and then gradually started ascending on dirt tracks with increasing gradients. After a while as we entered some woods we had to walk because there was a gate ahead of us. A short stretch of road followed a nice downhill section before we started our first major climb where everyone walked. Eventually the hill flattened out and I would have been very happy to run, but I was held up by someone in front who wanted to walk - the path was very narrow, so very difficult to overtake. Next we descended through the woods which was lovely and crossed our first stream(quite shallow). Some more climbing led to a long downhill road stretch where with the benefit of hindsight I would have picked up the pace a bit. We eventually went back into the trees and the second stream appeared - this w\s deep (above the knee depth) and tricky to navigate as a first timer!) We climbed a bit more and eventually returned to our first stream to cross again from the other direction then entered our second climb which seemed to go on forever. Eventually we exited the trees via a dirt track and had a lovely downhill finish. Would I do this again? Definitely! What have I learnt from my first Trunce experience?
Definitely - it will suit all abilities. I am certainly not the fastest runner in the club but there were many people slower than me Thanks to Ryan for driving, Sam for chatting with me in the back of the car and Dom for his infectious enthusiasm - this was a great fun evening and typifies everything great about KADS! We arrived home at 9 o'clock. Myself, Dom, Sam and Dan B headed up to Black Rocks Parkrun for leg 1 of the 'Cromford Double.' We met Vicky at the start who was camping nearby. Nothing much to say about the parkrun other than it's got some lovely views on the way out and it's flat and fast. It's an out and back in one direction, an out and back in the opposite direction and the first out and back only slightly shorter. But the real excitement is leg 2 of the double, The Cromford Killer. Whilst we drove the short way there, Vicky ran to the event! So she ran to parkrun, warmed up, ran parkrun, ran to the Cromford Killer start, ran the killer and then ran back to the camp site!  The Killer starts at the village fete which is a fantastic community effort. The junior and full race both start at the same time so whilst there was a bottleneck in places passing kids, it was great to be able to give them some encouragement. After half a mile or so of climbing on roads, paths and various driveways the fields split. The kids headed off on the flat, whilst the full race headed up the dreaded hill. It's grass, it's hilly and it's one of those hands on knees jobs, powering to the top which eventually brings you onto the High Peak Trail. It's roughly a 400ft climb over half a mile or so. Now the fun part is heading down Cromford Junction before branching off into the woods. There's another bit of cheeky climbing through the woods before another bit of downhill under the junction. It eventually leads back onto roads with a small climb towards the end. The finish is on a sports field which has an uphill running track. No wonder those local kids are so good at running! For an entry fee of £4 which goes back into the community it's a fantastic little race over 3.2 miles and a good entry level race for those looking to dip into trail running. The results page has changed several times due to errors but the final positions look to be.... 7th Ryan 24:49 (3rd in age category) 13th Dan B 26:39 (4th in age category) 14th Dom 28:19 (5th in age category) 26th Vicky 31:58 (2nd in age category) 32nd Sam 33:13 (1st in age category F45) Afterwards we frequented the village fete for food, the tombola whereby Dan and Sam took home wine and then the real competition began. The 2nd annual Cromford Ryder Cup, England represented by myself vs Ireland represented by Dom. 5 shots for £1 each. The local kids had laid out a putting mat and provided us a putter and ball. There was a lot of competitiveness in this, reading of the green, checking wind direction, analysis of distance etc. And after all that.. it finished 0-0. Nil sodding nil for the second year running it ended in a stalemate. 10 shots at glory and we flopped it. And we claim to be golfers.... The second competitive event was football darts. 3 penalties at the dartboard, 3 shots at glory for £1. This time it was Dom, myself and Dan who stepped up. Dom continued his trend of nil points (no wonder Ireland aren't at the world cup), myself I managed a paltry 6 (I think..) as controversially the final shot suffered a bounce out. Dan then stepped up with a miss, 51 and I have no idea about his final shot as I'd lost and stormed off like a petulant child :D! Dan B took the prize of a bag of sweets. I'd put that day up there as one of my favourite KADS days out (with Bushy and Dublin in a Day). We often just go to races, say a quick hello and then disperse after so always nice to have a chat with folk. There is rumour next year we may try and incorporate a KADS Camping weekend up there! Ryan  Thanks to Helen Woods for her race report from the Rasselbock Hardwick Hobble 6 mile at Hardwick Hall on 13 June 2026.  I’ve raced most distances and, around the club, I’m probably best known as a marathon runner. One challenge I’d never taken on, though, was an ultra. This year I decided it was finally time to give it a go. I wanted an event that didn’t require navigation or lots of kit, so I settled on the Rasselbock Hardwick Hobble. The format sounded ideal: complete as many 6.03km laps as possible in six hours, and it was only a 30-minute drive away. It was a much smaller event than the marathons I usually run, with fewer than 200 runners rather than thousands. I arrived early, picked up my number, and got myself organised. I left my drinks and energy chews on the table in the tent so I could grab them easily between laps, then dropped my bag in the bag drop area (that sounds grander than it was basically a sheet on the ground) . It was windy and chilly standing around, but I knew I’d warm up once we got going. There was a slight delay to the start because cows on the path held up cars getting into the car park, but we were underway shortly after 9am. I hadn’t done any specific training for the event, so I was relying on my marathon training to get me through. My aim was to reach 30 miles, but really I wanted to squeeze in as many laps as I could over the six hours. I worked out that if I averaged nine-minute miles I could get close to 40 miles, although the lap format meant there was never going to be a neat round number. I can’t lie, I felt very nervous and daunted by the challenge ahead. I had only ever run for just under four hours before, so could I really manage another couple of hours on my feet? Lap 1 didn’t feel quite as easy as it should have, but it worked well as a warm-up and a chance to get to know the course. Three sections stood out as challenging: two stretches of uneven ground, and then the hill towards the end of each lap. As the laps went on, the section through the trees before the hill became harder to run, partly because my legs were tiring and partly because it somehow seemed steeper each time. There were also a few gates to open, which became increasingly annoying towards the end. Most of the route was on trails with firm ground underfoot, and although it warmed up later, the weather was actually ideal for running. By laps 2 and 3, I was starting to settle into things. I stopped in the tent to refuel and someone struck up a conversation about the Cape Town Marathon because I was wearing the T-shirt, but I was keen to keep moving so I replied briefly and headed back out. I quickly realised that, for some people, the event was a much more relaxed affair. There were runners sitting down between laps, eating cake, and generally taking their time. Some people only did one lap, but at £42 entry, I was determined to get my money’s worth. Laps 4 and 5 felt good and I was getting into a rhythm. By then I knew where the best places underfoot to run were, where each gate was, which side it opened from, and whether I could just push through or I needed to lift the latch. At the end of lap 5, I changed from my T-shirt into my KADS vest. For the first time ever, I had pinned my race number to my shorts, which made changing my top much easier. Laps 6 and 7 were really about grinding them out. By lap 8, I’d been running for four hours and, more importantly, had gone beyond marathon distance for the first time ever. I was still moving reasonably well, so I knew I definitely had another lap in me. Lap 9 came and went, although everything was taking longer and I had started to walk slowly up the hill at the end. By lap 10, things were starting to hurt, especially my knees. At one point I genuinely wondered whether I was on lap 9 or lap 10 because my brain could no longer make sense of the mileage and lap count. Near the top of the hill, a marshal told me, “You’ve got one more in you — you’ve got 45 minutes.” I wasn’t sure if I did but I figured I could take it very easy. I stopped at the tent one last time to hydrate and grab some sweets, then headed out for what I knew would be my final lap. I walked the hill one last time, then found enough energy to lift the pace on the final stretch to the finish. I rang the bell to signal I was done and collected my medal — a picture of some historical figure, presumably hanging up in Hardwick Hall.  In the end, I needn’t have worried about whether I could do it. The slower pace, along with the chance to stop and refuel, helped me get through 11 laps, which came to 59.87km. Looking at the results afterwards one lap was 5.44km rather than the advertised 6.03km. The time seemed to fly by. It definitely didn’t feel like I’d been running for that long, and although I expected to get fed up of repeating the same lap over and over, that never actually happened. For the first couple of laps they scanned your QR code on your race number and then after that they were manually recording it. They sent out an email after to say it was because their scanner had packed in and to let them know if there are any errors. The official results have me down as completing only 9 laps so I have emailed them with my Strava activity and hopefully it will be sorted. Would I do another ultra? Yes, I would. Next time, I might choose one with a set distance — perhaps 40 or 50 miles — so the focus is more on the distance itself rather than a fixed time limit. That said, my current goal is to complete all of the major marathons, so whether another ultra fits around that remains to be seen. I did have to laugh the next day when I went to pay in Aldi and the card machine asked whether I was able to get around the store with ease. Let’s just say I wasn’t exactly moving with ease — my legs were very sore. |
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