GUN - Slawit Slog - Sun 1 March
Report by Michael Hernandez
From the team that brought you Pateley Pie ‘n’ Pint and Gargrave Half Marathon. This was a well organised event with a really friendly team, legendary cake stand and great goody bag/ medal.
An interesting Grim level 3 out of 5 trail race taking in the sights alongside the Huddersfield narrow gauge canal. In this, its fourth year, the event was well supported by 227 runners despite Storm Jorge’s best efforts. Staggered starts enable a full range of simultaneous 5K/10K, Half/ Full marathons and 20 mile races along an out-and-back two-way stretch: Huddersfield/ Marsden from Slaithwaite (locally known as Slawit).
The narrow canal towpath was strewn with puddles, (you give up dodging them after the first half mile – #muddyfun). The combination of shale and deep mud in places, interspersed with several lochs to traverse present a surprisingly challenging terrain. For us this year, the clear and sunny conditions met with the regular strong head-winds along the six-mile Huddersfield to Marsden turnaround stretch. This included a steady 515 ft elevation between these points. We didn’t envy the full marathon runners having to repeat the experience! It was great to encourage runners you encountered on the various stages of their races also. Spoiler-alert: the cheeky off road, up hill turnaround outside Marsden for our final 3 mile return was a pleasant sting-in-the-tail?!
It was nice to see a handful of Nidd Valley Road Runners on the course but the majority of our competitors were from surrounding West Yorkshire area clubs. Karen Lennox and Michael Hernandez (running for Fiona Hernandez) crossed the line together in a time of 2:43:33.
Team Grim really put on some great races in iconic settings. I would urge anyone to check their series out at www.itsgrimupnorthrunning.co.uk/grim-up-north-running-events.
There will be an impromptu Grim marathon along the Leeds/ Bradford canal on Easter Monday – 13 April at a cost of £20 (payable on the day). 30 runners required. This extra race has been especially organised to support one of the runners today who is due to fall short of his 300th marathon milestone in Edinburgh due to race cancellations with the bad weather we have had. Email races@itsgrimupnorthrunning.co.uk for further information.