From Rachel Carter…
I spotted this race advertised on Facebook and decided to enter as thought it would be good training for both the 3 Peaks Race and Leeds Marathon. Entry was a reasonable £28 which included a goody bag, a medal and a T-shirt and there was also a children’s 1.5 mile fun run!
Darwen is a market town in the just south of Blackburn and is surrounded by the West Pennine Moors – about an hour’s drive away.
The race starts and finishes at Blacksnape playing fields, just above the town, nicely exposed to the tail end (strong winds and hail showers) of Storm Dave on Sunday morning! Only about 3 minutes before the start did anyone make their way from the sheltered side of the sports club to the start line for a short briefing before we were off. The race had a down hill start and a down hill finish, and a climb and descent in the first half but mile 7-12 was a pretty unrelenting combination of tough climb, head wind or both!. Having managed to hold steady early on in the race I was able to pick a few people off in the last few miles to finish 5th lady and first in my category. Meanwhile my daughter, took part and won in the junior fun run – winning a selection of goodies and a very nice hand made trophy!
Overall, I’d highly recommend this race – very low key compared to bigger events but this comes with lots of benefits in my view! It was very well organised by Darwen Dasher’s running club and had a real community feel. I’m sure their other events would be just as good!