Social & Information

As Sarah Cumber's birthday approached, she threw out an open invitation for members to join her at the Muddy Boots Trail Race, to be held on Sunday 7th February. The race is organised by Ripon Runners and is held to raise funds for St. Wilfrid's school. On the Sunday morning, Peter McCormick, Linda Crabtree and Martin Haigh drove to Ripon (Linda went along, not to run, but to get a breath of much-needed fresh air as part of her rehabilitation). We got to Ripon in good time and then spent a few minutes driving around the town centre to locate the school. As we toured around we passed a pub called "The One Eyed Rat" and we all remarked that "that looks like a real drinkers' pub!" We found the school, parked up and went in to register. With race numbers in hand we came out of the school and bumped into Sarah (birthday girl) and Geoff Cumber.

As the clock approached 12 noon, the runners all lined up outside the school ready for the off. It was a misty but dry morning and when the hooter sounded we set off up a main road out towards the hills. We ran for about 3.5km on road before turning off onto some muddy fields. During the pre-race briefing, the race Director mentioned that "the conditions of the race lived up to its name", but, coming from Halifax, this was not real mud. We kept on the fields, twisting and turning, for a further 3.5km before re-joining the road section. After a further 3km on the road, at the 10km marker, we entered the school playing fields for the last 0.5km to the finish.

Sarah finished a creditable 37th (4th lady overall) in a time of 42min 29sec, closely followed by husband, Geoff in 47th place in a time of 43min 34sec. Then came Martin in 142nd position in 52:39 with Peter hard on his heels in a time of 60:41, giving him 230th position out of 282 finishers.

Race over, we went into the school hall for the presentation. One of the attractions to the race was the advert of home baked cakes for sale. The school did not disappoint and we continued to stuff our faces with cookies whilst waiting for the results to be processed. Sarah picked up her prize for 4th lady ,(Geoff, unfortunately, did not win a prize, simply because one was not awarded in his category). However, we all came away with a pair of flourescent gloves for our efforts.

When we decided to find a pub, to lubricate our throats, Geoff mentioned he had found a hostelry on the CAMRA website. Guess what, yes, it was the "One Eyed Rat" that we passed earlier in the day. No contest, this is where we went and we had a great afternoon before heading home.

Sarah, we hope you enjoyed your birthday outing!!!

The Muddy Boots is a very friendly event and a fairly easy course, so next year, don't forget to get your entries in and it's certainly worth a visit to the One-Eyed Rat.

2010 Muddy boots trail race results