MAD (Moors & Dales) Falls and Castle 18 mile Trail Race
Report by Fiona Hernandez
On Sunday 22 September 9 Ripon Runners took part in the MAD (Moors & Dales) Falls and Castle 18 mile trail race. There was also a 7 mile option.
The race started and finished at Bolton Castle. It consisted of running on moorland trails with hail and rain lashing down, climbing a seemingly endless hill, steep descending tarmac into Askrigg Village and running across fields to Asgarth Falls. Here we had to run The Falls Loop, collecting an armband as proof before continuing. Anyone failing to do this would incur a 15 minute time penalty. The views at Asgarth were truly spectacular.
En route, Karen Lennox, Louise Allen and I picked up a lady who was struggling at mile 2. By the end of the race we had formed a new friendship with Sara from Boston, Massachusetts, USA!
From there we continued through fields and finally hit the tarmac at the bottom of the hill with Bolton Castle visible. We ran and mostly walked to the top as it was brutal, although did find a little bit of energy to run through the finish line.
First back for Ripon Runners was Mike Hernandez and Kate Eyles. Followed by Karen Lennox, Louise Allen, Fiona Hernandez, Andrea Richardson, Wendy Green, Alex Nicol and Catherine Nicol.
This is a great challenging race. Well signposted, super organisation, generous cut off times for the 3 checkpoints, fantastic support from marshals, friendly feed stations and great finishers t-shirt. 100% recommend this.