Another Sunday, and another number to pin on. This time 2 numbers for the Dovedale Dash 2018 as Mrs BeestonRunner was also running with a number for the first time
His and Her’s bib numbers
As Mrs BR was running there’s slightly less photos than normal as I didn’t fancy fumbling with a mobile phone whilst running through the River Dove
There’s no pre registration for the Dovedale Dash, and it’s pretty popular with 1300+ registrations for the main event this year. So if you want to guarantee a spot then you need to get there early and register. Getting there early also means less queuing to get into the car park.
Preamble
We left Beeston about 8:15 and after a trouble free drive got to Thorpe just after 9am. Car parking was being marshalled nicely so no chance of getting wedged in or not having enough room to turn out. Stepping out of the car was a bit of a shock as it was a tad colder than Beeston, cloud was down to the top of Thorpe Cloud
Registration was well organised, and with minimal queues didn’t take long to complete. We caught up with a few friends who were also running, and then retreated back to the car until it was time to get ready. We’d planned for this so had a nice flask of coffee and some bananas to wait with.
Dovedale Dash 2018 route
Though to be honest, it doesn’t change from year to year:
Despite thinking we’d left plenty of time to get to the start we got stuck in the toilet queue and ended up joining at the back of the field. The start of the Dovedale is a bit different to most races, there’s a very wide entry point so the back of the filed was probably 50m wide. And then it funnels down pretty quickly into a narrow cleft down to the stepping stones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOItDN0wF2Q
Dovedale Dash 2018 start
Straight out of something like Braveheart, or the sort of scene involving wildebeest and Sir David Attenborough’s soothing tones. We took it steady (look for a lime green hat and shirt on the far side from about 0:36-0:50) and stuck on the left hand side so Mrs BR could use the stepping stones for the river crossing. Faster side appeared to running across the slope to the right
Crossing the River
At the bottom of the chute it opens up for the iconic bit, the crossing of either:
The Dovedale stepping stones
The wet route across the River Dove
This is where the majority of photos and videos get take. So without further ado here are a couple:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSWU_DyP09k
I appear at about 5:09 alongside the stepping stones. Look out for the lime green hat and top combination
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXWpAcV8j1U
I feature fairly prominently in this one from about 5:25 when I stand in front of the filmer while waiting for Mrs BR to come across the stepping stones.
Now with cold wet feet we were on tarmac heading down to the National Trust car park. Luckily running pumped the water out of my inner soles and got the blood flowing to warm them up.
On dryer ground
Just before reaching the car park we headed off to the right up a small hill for a cross country section to Ilam. Good runnable surface this, and no chance of getting lost with plenty of people and arrows to follow. Dropped into Ilam and then a little bit of road to cross the River Manifold
More easy cross country, with one nasty steep greasy uphill about half way along. Nice easy running, I was well within my limits and Mrs BR was at a happy pace for her. The masses had thinned out a bit so there was some space which made running in company more fun. Crossed the River Dove again, though on a bridge this time and we were heading for home.
Running up the other side of the Dove along Dovedale meant the narrower rockier path. This was quite slippy in places but not too bad, though there was one young lady waiting for MRT to arrive as she’d twisted her knee
And finally it was time to run back up Lin Dale. Much more fun that the jog down in the crowd. Lots of people towards the top waiting for club mates to finish meant there was lots of encouragement for those last 100 metres. Thanks to this year’s addition of electronic timing there was no queue or hanging around at the end. So we quickly headed off to the car for some dry kit and a short drive back to Beeston
Aftermath
The afternoon was happily spent on the sofa. No real aches or pains for either of us as we’d run within our limits, and happy with out time and effort.
The Dovedale Dash 2018 definitely counted as a success, and I’ll be putting the date for the 2019 running (Sunday 3rd November) in my calendar for next year.
His and Her’s bib numbers