Starlight Yorkshire Dales Race, 25 November
Report by Victoria Morris
On Friday night I took part in the Starlight Yorkshire Dales race from Tough Trails (https://www.toughtrails.co.uk/Starlight-yorkshire-dales).
I’d been attracted to this race by the fact that it was taking place on a Friday night, so wouldn’t interfere with weekend plans, and the advertised “Unforgettable night with like-minded trail obsessed people!”
There were two distance options, 10 (i.e. 13) and 20 (i.e. 21.5) miles. Never liking to take the easy option, I chose the longer route.
As you may have noticed, there was quite a lot of weather around on Friday night. When we left Settle at 5pm it was just starting to snow. By the time we reached Malham, I was beginning to wish that I’d brought skis, and by Malham Tarn there was a raging blizzard. After that I couldn’t really see anything as the snow seemed to be heading straight for your eyes whichever direction you faced.
From Malham tarn, I believe that we headed up the Pennine Way for a bit before skirting the southern edge of Fountains Fell towards Longyearbyen, then past Baffin Island to pick up the Pennine Bridleway back towards Ultima Thule before finally slithering/sledging back down into Settle.
On arriving back at HQ, I learnt that the race had been abandoned and that runners were being shuttled back to Settle by car. I have yet to see race results, but I suspect I may have achieved the once-in-a-lifetime result of being both first and last female finisher!
Overall I would highly recommend this run to anyone who has the sense to check the weather forecast before setting out.