Where: Sheffield
When: Sunday 26 June
Terrain: Mixed. Road and trail
Distance: Multi stage race – 12 miles running, 14 miles in total
The Round Sheffield Run was a first for me, I’d never done a race like this before. Basically it was an 11 stage race, each stage was timed and then you had a ‘rest’ between each stage that wasn’t timed, and you used this to walk from the end of one stage to the start of the next one.
You could either run as an individual or as a pair, so when we signed up myself and Luke agreed we’d take it on as a pair. We had a team name and everything.
We arrived at Endcliffe Park in plenty of time for our wave to start (we were the second to last wave and started between 10am and 10.15am) because as well as picking up our standard race number we had to collect our timing chip. This was like a little dibber attached to a lanyard that Luke ran with. This little dibber was what we used to check us in at the start of each stage and out at the end of it. So it recorded how long it look you to do each one. We also got a handy little card that told us how many kilometres each stage was and how long we had from the finish of each stage to get to the start of the next one. If you took longer the additional time was added to your stage time.
It might sound a bit complicated, but once you got into the swing of it it was really easy, and there was a marshal at every stage start and finish to make sure you did it correctly.
So the stages…
Stage one – 2.9km – gentle
The race started from Endcliffe Park and followed some paths though the park before crossing a road and starting to follow some more trail like paths through some woods. So far so good, this was fairly flat and we were able to set an ok pace.
Each time you came across a road crossing while you were running, you could use your dipper to check in and out, so you didn’t lose any time waiting for traffic, but we found the roads were pretty quiet so we could just get across without needing to do this.
With the first 2.9k down, I was feeling pretty confident, consulting my map I saw the next stage was 2.5k, half a Parkrun, how hard can it be?
So I asked Luke, what does KOM/QOM stand for next to where it says stage 2…
Stage two – 2.5km – KILLER
As all Tour de France aficionado’s will know KOM (or QOM) stands for King of the Mountain. Oh. Bugger.
They weren’t lying. It started off pretty gently, and I thought to myself, ahhhh they mustn’t have hills like we do. But they do. The hill was a killer, pretty steep and one of those unrelenting ones that never seem to end.
Our pace took a bit of a dent on this stage and we slowed right down (as did a lot of the people around us!).
The route was lovely, through some nice wooded countryside with a stream running through it. If my legs hadn’t been screaming at me, it would have been very pleasant!
But finally the 100 meters to go sign came into view and we could enjoy the fact that that stage would soon be over. At the end of this stage there was a water station with bottles of water and bananas! Very nice!
Stage 3 – 2.5km – Lovely bit of down
An awesome bit of trail to make up some time from the last section (offftttt a lot of walking in that stage). This was possibly my favourite section of the whole race, you can’t beat a good downhill section and it’s lovely running trails that you haven’t run before.
Stage 4 – 1.8km – Mud!
After quite a lot of rain (’cause you know it is summer!!!) the previous three days this was quite a muddy section. There were a fair few times I thought I’d be ending up with a fairly muddy bum!
I have to say my favourite bit was probably racing through the middle of the mud while watching some of my fellow competitors gingerly pick their way round the edges of it!
Stage 5 – 2.5km – Knackered before the start
To get to the start of this leg involved a ‘lovely’ climb up steps through some woods. Suffice to say, my legs were burning before we even started this one! After a couple of minutes plucking up the courage to start again we were off.
Happily the lovely surroundings made this leg seem a bit less harsh. The route described it as undulating. I think I’d just call it up!
Stage 6 – 0.9km – that’s only 900 metres
It’s funny how much further 900 metres seems when you’re legs are getting tired! Pretty thankful this was a nice short one!
Stage 7 – 1.4km – eughhhhhh. That is all.
An uphill slog. There’s no other way to describe it. This was hard. My legs were tired, Luke looked like he had barely broken a sweat and it was all uphill. I hate uphill. It sucks. But I was looking forward to the next water station to refuel and fill up my water bottle.
Stage 8 – 1.3km – what goes up must come down
Yay, a nice downhill! A fast trail section. Plus at the end of this one there was a water station with LOADS of Jelly Babies. So we took on board a few (handfuls) of them… purely to replenish our energy reserves, not because we love Jelly Babies.
Stage 9 – 0.8km – Quick one!
This stage was over with pretty quickly, mostly downhill through some woods but on a tarmac path so you could really ramp up the speed on this one. Another good stage to make some time back, especially with all the Jelly Babies for fuel!
Stage 10 – 2.2km – Sad face, more hills
Oh my god, I was not prepared for the hills on this penultimate stage. They floored me. It was up a steep road and then into some woods. Once we were into the woods the hill became a lot more gradual rather than straight up, but it was still a tough leg to complete especially with tired legs.
Stage 11 – 0.4km – THE FINISH!
Just 400 metres through the park to the finish line. It was flat, but my legs didn’t want to move so it definitely wasn’t a sprint finish!
Overall it was probably one of the most enjoyable races I’ve done in terms of the route and the stages. It broke the race up, and added an extra element of fun into the day! I think it made what would have been a pretty tough course if you ran the whole thing, into quite a manageable race.
Out of the 148 mixed pairs that completed the race, me and Luke came 37th, so not a bad effort. All of our stage times (if you’re interested) are here.