Slaley Hall Half Marathon – 17th November 2024
by Paul Orange
At this time of the year, the sunrise has a beautiful yellow/orange tint, and so it was a pleasure to be heading up to Slaley Hall on a bright, crisp Sunday morning on 17th November to participate in the Slaley Hall half marathon. This is a WIld Deer event and there is a 10k event at the same time – in fact the half marathon follows the 10k route, popping out for an extra section after about 2.5 miles.
It was around freezing while everyone got parked, grabbed their numbers and queued for the loos, but by 9.40, when everyone gathered at the start for a briefing, you could feel the temperature lift a few degrees, which is about where it stayed for the rest of the morning. Then it’s 9.45 and we’re off. It’s a trail half-marathon and my Garmin claims 360 meters of ascent in total, but there were no super-steep hills (IMHO), but some longer continual climbs.
The first mile or so was straight uphill towards the edge of the golf course, sharp right, slow down to get through the single person gate and through a small wood. Then all of a sudden, it’s 2.5 miles and the two events split, pretty much at one of the car parks for Slaley forest. I enjoyed the race more from here, as it had been very congested for the first mile or so. Through the forest on hard-packed tracks, and it was lovely – pine trees, nice and sheltered (for the most part), and just focus on the job at hand. The most difficult uphill came at about 6 miles in, just because it was the longest incline. The ground was uneven, you had to keep a good eye on where you were putting your feet, so watching out for the view was a bit limited, and I did see one runner who had stacked it and was just getting back up by the time I reached them.
After about 9.5 miles, we re-joined the 10k course, and this was the least favourite part of the run for me, as we mostly just ran around the edge of the golf course – not the most inspiring landscape, but there were a couple of nice views to be had. The route here was also the muddiest & slippiest, as it had been churned up by the 10K runners and all the faster half-marathon folks.
Eventually coming back on to the tarmac entrance road around a bit of a dog leg and back to the finish, for medal, T-Shirt, Wild Deer gift of your choice (reusable cup, beanie, buff or socks) and most importantly – the included bacon buttie and a brew.
I enjoyed the event, but doubt I’ll be heading back next year, as the final section round the golf course wasn’t that inspiring, and the crowding at the start was a bit painful. Overall, good organisation & a good vibe from Wild Deer, but I think the 2 water stations were a bit on the stingy side and if it continues to grow in popularity, parking may become an issue. There also seemed to be a last-minute notification of a 3:30 cut-off, which is the kind of thing that shouldn’t be last minute
There were 191 half-marathon finishers. First male was 1:22:52, first female was 1:42:18, I was pretty happy with a 2:18:39 for this event. There were also 272 10k finishers on the day.
Paul