Thunder Run – report

Report by Sarah Attwood.

Last weekend saw my second Thunder Run (TR24), a tough, hilly 24 hour off-road relay race. You can enter this race as either a solo runner, as a pair or as a team (of either 3-5 or 6-8). Last year I was entered in a team of 8 with some friends I met at the runnersworld bootcamp, this year we met back up (in bigger numbers) and ran as several teams of 5.

You can set up camp from friday mid day so we headed down to Catton Park, Derbyshire in the afternoon. We arrived at camp roughly 2.5 hours later. By this time lots of people had pitched their tents and set up camp. Luckily a few of our team members live local so they had arrived at 12 and secured us a fantastic spot near the start/finish and the food stalls.

We quickly pitched our tents and started on the pre race celebrations, this included far too much fizz, cider, cake and other niceties…unfortunately we forgot the BBQ. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits and excited about the endurance event starting the following day. That evening we went to watch the fun run (for the kids), walk around the stalls and mingle with the other runners.

The camp is supposed to be quiet by about 9 so as the sun set (and we got out our head torches) the general buzz and chit chatter became quieter until we were all in bed by midnight, hoping for a refreshing sleep.

I woke up to a quiet camp site at about 7, however it didnt remain quiet for long, quickly more people woke and started getting ready for the briefing at 11:30, followed by the start of the race at 12. Whilst walking around the camp I was surprised to bump into David Leese, also in a team of five. I wasnt aware that any other YKH was there so it was nice to bump in to a fellow harrier.