Chopwell Woods Christmas Trail Races – 22nd December 2024

by Joanne Hope

I looked at this event last year after doing Chopwell Woods parkrun as it such a beautiful place. Unfortunately I hadn’t been able to make the date. I attended a free trail event with Wild Deer up there earlier in the year where I got talking to someone who recommended the races so decided to sign up early.

There’s a family mile, a 4 mile and an 8 mile, the event is canicross friendly. I decided to go for the 8 miler. I’ve done a couple of Wild Deer events before and they’ve been well organised.

I was thinking on the drive over there, that it was only two days until Christmas Eve and I wasn’t feeling very festive, well that all changed! When I arrived at the woods, there were children leaving with their medals and selection boxes, the Christmas fancy dress was in full force and they had Christmas music playing. The clearing in the woods where the races start is majestic.

The only other Crook runner that I knew was attending was Amanda Taylor, I was keeping my eyes peeled but didn’t spot her until I moved over to the back of start line after the pre-race briefing. Anyone who knows me, knows I love a pre-race briefing! We barely had time for a quick chat then we were off.

The 8 miler starts off heading up into the woods, what I didn’t realise, is that you then head back down, then further down, meaning the last two miles is a pretty brutal climb back up.

There had been a dusting of snow on the morning, so parts of the woods had a little sprinkling and the sun was shining through the trees, the weather couldn’t have been better.

One of the marshal’s at around 6 miles had a tub of Haribo jellies, which were massively appreciated!

It was a lovely run and I thoroughly enjoyed it, you can’t really get a much more scenic location. Its definitely up there with my favourite all time races and I’d highly recommend it.

At the end you get a choice of merch, which was water bottle or buff, a wooden medal, mince pie, water, choice of drink, and chocolates. T shirts were an optional extra when you signed up at £10.

The parking is limited so its best to turn up early and / or car share but they did email beforehand with alternative parking which was around a mile walk from the start.