I love entering races. They motivate me to train and give me a goal to aim for, and then a huge sense of achievement once I have completed them.

What doesn’t like races… is my bank balance. Although they’re not hugely expensive, especially the likes of 10k races, there is still a cost involved, plus a time commitment, so my plan is to enter no more than 1 race a month and realistically I’ll probably only do one race every other month.

This year I would love to run more trail races, but they seem to be much harder to find. So I wanted to write this blog post just for myself, in order to put all of the different races I’m potentially interested in down in one place for me to then refer to throughout the year.

 

Alsager 5  – 3rd February

Okay so this one is a road race but it’s local to me and 5 miles is a distance I’ve been getting more comfortable with recently so it’s got to be done.

For years I’ve seen the signs for Alsager 5 thinking “I could never do that.” Well now I can!

 

Monsal Trail 23rd March – SOLD OUT…. NOOOOOOOO

 

Peak District Spring Trail Series Round 2 – 7th April

The kit list is a little scary for this race but it sounds well organised and a good starting point for trail running as the short option is 4-7km.

 

Peak District Spring Trail Series Round 3 – 28th April

Same as above but different location.

 

OMM Festival 4-5th May

The OMM festival is a 2 day event with 10k, half marathon and marathon races, plus the OMM lite & bike orienteering events. I think I’m just going to do the 10k race, but I do quite fancy the idea of the OMM lite! It’s held in a different location each year and this time it is coming to Cannock Chase!

 

White Peak Trail – 12th May

Another event from the Peak District Trail Run Events. This races goes from Ashbourne along the Tissington Trail. The long route takes you through Dovedale which looks much more attractive, but I don’t think I’ll be ready for 16 miles of trails yet.

 

Potters Arf – 9th June

The Biggie! Another road race but for good reason. This year I wanted to push myself to train for and run a half marathon, and the Potters Arf is a race that Ash’s brother has ran a few years and one that he’s been encouraging me to do this time.

 

S-o-T Running Festival – 7th July

More road races… but it’s my local festival of running with lots of different race lengths and a brilliant hoody, so it feels right to join in with this for one year at least!

 

Maveirk Trail Race – 13th July

The maverirk races keep popping up on facebook and have been recommended to me. There’s a couple of length options but I think I’ll probably just stick to the short distance or 16km… or maybe be brave and do the 26km!

 

Peak District Challenge 20th – 21st September

There’s a whole choice of distances from 10km to 100km. As you can probably see there’s a little bit of theme with the locations here, as the Peak District is very popular for trail races and local to me.

 

Limestone Way Ulta & Half – 6th October

I’m just going to put this here…. The full ultra is 43 miles but the half is only 17 miles! Who knows where I will be in October…

 

What races are on your to do list for 2019? Where do you look for your races?