6th November 2005

This is the description of the Dovedale Dash from their website:

“The Dovedale Dash is a cross country race of 4¾ miles, run by about 1200 people of all abilities. The venue is the picturesque area around the village of Thorpe and Dovedale in the south of the Derbyshire Peak District. The course is mainly along field paths and open ground in the valleys of the rivers Dove and Manifold. There are short stretches along tarmac and there is some stony ground. One of the excitements is the crossing of the river Dove at the well known Stepping-Stones”.

This is Peter Tricker’s much more accurate description of the race:

Each year several members from the club have attempted what’s become a regular grueling, mud splattered fell race in the peak district. This year was no exception. It started raining during the night and with three hours to go became steadily worse! This posed problems for the race marshals trying to get cars onto the field that doubled as a car park with several stuck in the mud in various positions all over the field. In some places four wheel drive was not enough. The marshals diverted cars to nearby car parks up to a mile away plus along the lanes leading to Thorpe where the race started. This lead to the race being delayed for 15 minutes until 11.15am to allow all the 1000 or so runners to get to the start.

With 15 minutes to go we started to emerge from our cars onto the now well-waterlogged field only to spot five of our girls squatting behind Denise’s car. Well if nature calls I guess you’ve just got to go.

The start was the usual stampede down a steep slope towards the River Dove. I haven’t come across a race where the sensible slow start is so totally ignored. So with runners slipping and sliding we headed down the gulley towards the three feet deep waters of the River Dove. Like herds of Wildebeest where one entered the rest followed in a charge across the river. It was well over thigh deep and very cold. Several runners stumbled, momentarily vanishing below the waves, well if you’re going to get wet, and we really were, what does it matter? Some were luckier than others - Miles only got his knees wet but Rachel was waist deep.

The next two or three miles were across the sloping fields that the hill farmers used for cattle rearing and, yes, the smell after several runners had been through each muddy gateway stunk of s*** (sorry, farm yard manure). We were by now almost continuously running in mud, up to our knees in places. (“Mud, mud. glorious mud”).

Finally we got back to the Dovedale but now we ran along a precarious, stony, path – or in the river which ever you fancied and then, finally, slowly back up the steep, muddy slope we had hurtled down at the start. Just what you want when you’ve run four miles in mud, soaked to the skin and totally knackered.

Well will we do it again? Of course we will, we love it!

Who said that?

Results are a bit random as there are no official results outside the top 10 but all finishers are given a certificate (that instantly gets covered in mud).

Striders places and approximate times

There were 943 finishers

The oldest was 72 years old and the youngest was 5 years old.