If you’ve never done a trail race before, hopefully this will give you an idea of what to expect, and whether you’ll enjoy it!
A standard, longer distance road race takes place on a relatively smooth surface such as town roads or running tracks, but a trail race is held in an outdoor environment, on unpaved, uneven terrain such as tracks, natural paths, rocky surfaces, and potentially steep inclines or descents. It gets away from the roads and built up areas, and instead takes you into natural environments, including mountains, moorland and large forests, therefore it will be significantly remote from road access points. The variable terrain of a trail race requires better agility to navigate obstacles like rocks, roots, and uneven ground. This places greater demands on the muscles and balance compared to running on a flat, smooth road. Trail races often involve more significant elevation changes, with climbs and descents, that require an increased cardiovascular effort compared to a flat 10k. The uneven terrain, and need to pick your way through obstacles, means maintaining a consistent pace is more challenging on a trail race. Due to the potentially remote environment you need to be self-sufficient in case you had to stop running for some reason, so you need to carry kit with you such as drink, food and warm / waterproof layers appropriate to the season, weather and environment. Racing in the colder, wetter weather of our Welsh autumn and winter also takes much more effort than a road 10K on a balmy summer’s evening, so you will need to have experience of running in these conditions to make sure you enter a race distance that you will actually be able to enjoy!
Registration for all our trail running events will be through the Fabian4 website.
https://www.fabian4.co.uk/default.aspx?EventID=3818
Our races will run under permit from UK Athletics, which ensures external verification of our safety procedures, and means we will be following their current race guidance. One of their rules is that competitors cannot run with dogs to ensure everyone’s safety and enjoyment.
