Race Date 31st of December 2022
Every New Years since 2015 we have done a race along the Flitch Way, Marathons, Half Marathons and a 10k on either New Years Eve or New Years Day. Now we only do one race on New Years Eve that includes all three distances.
Post covid this is the first year we have sold out entries which we did about 4 weeks before the race date. We only allow 150 people total as we can only provide parking for about 100 cars. 40 behind the Felsted Memorial Hall and 60 that the local prep school allows us to use, for a donation to one of their charities.
We use the Felsted Memorial Hall in Felsted village as the start/finish location, this is a great venue as it has a big hall and a kitchen plus toilet and changing facilities.
Route
The route runs down to the Flitch Way via local roads about 0.8 of a mile away and then turns right towards Rayne where CP1 is at 4.3 miles. The 10k runners turnaround a little bit before this and return the way they came. The Half and Full Marathons Turnaround at CP1 and return along the Flitch but instead of turning back the way they came they continue along the Flitch towards Dunmow. Just before Dunmow underneath the underpass they get to CP2 at 9.5 miles which is the turnaround for the Half Marathon. The full Marathon runners continue through Dunmow and along the Flitch Towards their turnaround point at 16 miles when they then head back along the Flitch via CP2 at 22 miles and turn off the Flitch where they came onto it and back to the Finish.
It’s a very flat route being an old industrial railway line, apart from a few bridges and a couple of muddy sections it’s very runnable and unless it’s been really wet road shoes are usually fine. It’s a pretty quick course with some fast records as below.
10k
Male – James Bosher 37:17 2016
Female – Karen Pickering 46:33 2016
Half
Male – Phillip Morgan 1:21:22 2022 – This
Female – Danni Evans 1:47:18 2015
Full
Male – Aaron Graves 2:50:57 2019
Female – Elizabeth Dyson 3:12:28 2016
Weather
The weather was forecast to be very wet and thus the course was expected to be muddy, especially around Dunmow. It was actually better than expected and all the 10 runners and most of the Half runners escaped the rain but the Marathon runners did cop a fair bit! Well it is a trail run in Winter! Temperatures however were excellent at around 12c give or take all day.
Results
For full results please go to our results page https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=301186
The 10k was won by Scott Bird in 41:37 and first Female was Anna Marton in 53:46
The Half Marathon was won by Phillip Morgan in 1:21:22 which was a new course record and the Female winner was Gemma Powell in 1:57:16
The full Marathon was won by Dave Phillips in 2:54: 58 and the Female winner was Georgia Couzens in 3:44:49.
It was a fantastic days running with many running their first or fastest 10k, Half or Marathon. For some it was the first of many and for some like Andy Wilmot it was over 800!
A few other stats.
- Total Starters 126 across all distances
- Oldest runner – Male 78 – Female 62 (x2)
- Youngest Runner – Male 22 – Female 28
- DNF’s – None though a few did downgrade to the Half or 10k at the last minute.
Thanks must be given to the following people who made the event possible.
- Maxine Lock my sidekick and registration and medic
- Anne Purdham on registration
- Phillip Greensides on Car parks and CP2
- Adam Toyne on CP2
- James Seagar on CP1
- Ruth, Gareth and Ennis Gailey on CP3
- Graham Purdham and David Davidson on Marking and Sweeping.
- Felsted Memorial Hall for the venue
- Felsted School for the second Prep School car park
- The Booking Hall Cafe at Rayne for the CP location Permissions
Next year we have already made bookings for the event with the venues and updated the website info.
Entries are already open for next year with only a tiny price increase of £5 per race due to increased costs of venues, materials like shirts and medals and fuel etc. We still think it’s good value for the service we provide.
As always we do an early discounted price of £5 off for each distance until the 1st of April.
To enter please go to the event page
See you all next year.
Lindley RD