Zig Zag Running The Lucky Horseshoe Challenge

Stephen and Zoe set up Zig Zag running this year on what turned out to be a rather challenging year so once they had announced some events I had to get along to support them. Sadly I couldn’t make the 1st one on the Saturday but I could get along to day 2 on the Sunday. Louise also booked us into a hotel (it’s my birthday weekend) so we traveled up Saturday afternoon so there was no rushing around Sunday morning being 8 miles from the start. Louise dropped me off and went back to the hotel with little two till check out at 12pm which worked out quite well.

On arrival and while still in the car the runners are given a temperature check and issued with race numbers.

We then headed for the rather cool start sign and you may notice on my number is an additional number (3) we were lined up separately and in rows of 3/4 and set off 30 seconds apart all safe and covid secure. Before we were set off Stephen appeared with a bag of balls, bingo so he pulled one out and the number pulled out that matches there race number gets a free race credit (how cool is that). It must be challenging for all events at the moment but it must of been very daunting for a new event to have to make sure everyone was kept extra safe great work guys.

It started at 9am and the field spread out very quickly, the course itself was a mixture of crushed stone style path, some grass and trail and a little mud. I enjoyed the course which is 5k laps (not out and backs actual loops). The views were fantastic although rather silly of me I didn’t get many photos of the course.

Love the fact the marshal when he left his post got creative just to make sure we didn’t run off the wrong way

There was a few ups (nothing major and a good few downs as well). I found I walked a few ups and sped up on the downs and also some laps ran some of the ups. I felt quite good and done a half in about 2:10 and pushed on nearly getting sub 5 in the end it was about 5:04:57 which I am really pleased about and fastest time this year. I only had road shoes and although a little muddy I didn’t slip over and we’re fine to run in. You may want to take trail shoes as well and change into them if you need.

In the distance coming in to finish lap 7

There was an aid station at HQ which had hand sanitizer and water and sealed bags of sweets etc as well as a water station (bottled water for now same at most events for the time being) so we were well looked after.

Zoe even gave the little two cake while they waited for me to finish

Zoe came out and done my last lap with me which was nice and really helped me to push on. So much so that Louise who had gone back to the car didn’t get back in time to see me finish. I must say it was a tad chilly so thank you to awesome marshals that were out in the cold all day it is much appreciated by all of us.

Once I crossed the finish line I collected my medal and was given a sealed cake and a hot chocolate which I thought was a really nice touch it was so nice to have a hot drink straight away

They have a few more events coming up check them out on the website https://www.zigzagrunning.co.uk

The medals are really nice as well as the merchandise some great colour tee shirts and vests all very well priced

They also do miles in a month challenges which I have done 300 miles in month and working toward 150 this month so even if you can’t make the events you can keep motivated check out the facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/Zigzagrunning/?ref=share

I will definitely be back for more events and had a great time well done Stephen and Zoe and all the best for the future with Zig Zag running