Rogue Run – Rising Sun Inn
Two hardy CLC Striders travelled to the Forest of Dean to race the Rogue Run which was set on a fantastic 9k course in the dark
As the dark nights set in and we get prepared to do a few training runs in the shadows of street lights to guide our way to avoid the dodgy pavements and puddles. Alternatively you could embrace the darkness with a cross country night race in the Forest of Dean. This year the Rogue Run series has been cut back from 4 to 3 races, but that only seemed to bring out even more runners on a mild Thursday night at the Rising Sun Inn. In total there were 181 competitors from Wales, Bristol, Malvern, Farnham and two CLC Striders – Rob Bircher and Andrew Paterson. This was supposed to be an easy training run, but after the start gun this one went of the window and we streamed off into the woods, head torches bobbing up and down to light the way.
The Rising Sun route is one of the easier underfoot and mainly on fast straight fire tracks and twisting wooded sections, with a sprinkling of ascents and descents to test the legs. Rob’s strength is his ability to eat hills, and pulled away from Andrew over the first few ascents. At a tricky downhill section at about 3k, which is the technical element Andrew loves to dive into, this lead was overturned shortly, but with a long hill ahead at the end of the first of two laps Rob went out in front and increased the gap over the remaining 5k.
Rob finished in 29th in a time of 42:41 (2014 - 52:26), and Andrew 51st at 45:29 (2014 - 55:45) - both well and truly improving on last year. The hard effort was rewarded with bananas, chocolate biscuits, and a plate of hot dog and chips plus a medal. Not bad for only £8 for a pre-entered affiliated runner.