Stephen Hopkins reports: This is a trail race that anyone with a liking for testing off roaders should try. In a lovely area not far from Bolton,it circles around two reservoirs, one being Rivington reservoir.
This place is also known in fell running circles for the Rivington Pike fell race held every Easter.
Starting with a small circuit on school parkland it then climbs steeply up through trees for the next mile or so before becoming more gently undulating till reaching the first of two reservoirs. Then once again it becomes more hilly as the route goes through woodland and grass, not helped by awkward cobbled paths in places.
At one point at probably the furthest end of the route are some superb views across the water. I only noticed these because of some people taking advantage of a glorious day to have a picnic at a good vantage point high on one hillside. This I guess would have been at about mile eight when a good run was beginning to become more a battle to survive through the summer heat of an October [?] day.
At the eleven mile stage the race finally seemed to flatten out and by the finish i could almost stretch out to a sprint to come home just under 2 hrs. [1.59.39].
The organisation was first rate with four drinks stations and lots of friendly marshals doing a fine job. Also rating high was the goody bag with food and drink and a decent tech t-shirt thrown in.
Definitely will be back for this though i very much doubt the weather will be quite the same.
Well done Stephen – I ran it last year and the year before and really enjoyed it. This year I did their Wye Valley one for a change. The Rivington route is really lovely.
Congratulations Stephen. A good sound/solid run;especially when one has to run up steep climbs and traverse the various undulations (code for hilly topography!) in exceptionally warm conditions. Clearly a `testing off-roader.`
When the going gets tough,the tough get going.
Barrie Roberts
Congratulations! It was really nice to read your race report; I went to school in Rivington and I can picture some of the exact spots that you write of! We watched the Ironman up there early in the year which was very exciting!