Race the Train

L-R: Tony Johnson, Andrew Pask, Peter Bonner

Three members of Grantham Running Club made the trip to the Mid-Wales town of Tywyn for the world-famous Race the Train event. The event which is a pilgrimage for runners across the UK and even further afield was ran in blistery conditions. After heavy rain the day before the 14-mile Cross Country course was a greater challenge than usual, with mud knee high in parts.

Andrew Pask and Peter Bonner set a good early pace, trying to capitalise on the tail wind for the first half of the out and back course. But with the train charging off ahead, the Grantham runners struggled to keep pace. The brutal headwind on the trickier 2nd half of the race and limited opportunities to overtake slower runners meant the pace dropped considerably. The steam train, having stopped at half way to take on water was still behind the two front GRC runners until around 10 miles when the ‘Choo-choo’ sound could be heard approaching. Spurred-on, Bonner kicked ahead with all that he had, narrowly failing to beat the train by around 2 mins with a time of 1:49:53. A tired Andrew Pask was behind with 1:51:35, followed by Tony Johnson in his one and only trail race of the year with 2:05:45. Tony had the honour of completing his 19th consecutive Race the Train event and returns next year for his 20th.

Local bragging rights were also at stake with our neighbours at Sleaford Striders sending a team of around 30 runners to this event. Their only runner to beat the train was Iain Bailey who finished 11th overall.

The event hosts numerous race distances, where the morning 10km had the honour of international athlete Gemma Steel taking the 1st lady prize.

After the race the party started in the race marquee where the marshals return from a day on the hills to join the runners for a well-earned drink.