Hamish Rae travelled to the Lake District to take part in the Grasmere Gallop 10k trail race.

Described as a ‘perfect 10’, the race route took the runners through some of the most beautiful landscape in the country, the Vale of Grasmere and Rydal, within the national park.

The fully marked route started at Grasmere village. After a short stretch of road the trails started, climbing up through Deer Bolts Wood and then onto the stunning Loughrigg Terrace. The route continued along and over Loughrigg, passing the Rydal Cave, before returning to Grasmere via the shorelines of Rydal Water and Grasmere. The overall elevation was just over 600 feet.

Hamish has been in fine form of late and his warm weather training with the Navy in Aruba has really paid dividends. Hamish won the race in a fantastic time of 00:37:30 on a very challenging course.

There were 186 finishers.

With the excitement of the DD over for another year (well done to everyone!), 4 Trotters with slightly less exuberant targets in mind made their way to the Burrator 10K on the same evening. On a course proclaimed to be the most scenic in Devon, the runners completed 1 full lap of the road surrounding the reservoir and then another 2/3rds of a lap.

First Trotter home was Martin Randall in a very creditable 23rd place. This was Martin's first race since before the pandemic so he can be well pleased with his outing. Steven Major, working his way steadily through the field, ran a very well judged race to finish in 91st place and a new personal best. Rebecca Hext finished in in 94th place to claim 2nd place in the Vet 55 category - well done Rebecca on a great race. Bob Small finished in 131st place and, there not being a Vet 75 category in this race, duly took 1st place in the Vet 70 category. Bob's time was just 20 seconds shy of David Taylor's club record in the Vet 75 category. Bob, still making his way back from nearly a year out with varying medical issues, hopes to be fully fit again in the next couple of months

The Trotters full results were:- Martin Randall 23rd in 00:41.08; Steven Major 91st in 00:49.17; Rebecca Hext 94th in 00:49.28 and Bob Small 131st in 00:52.43.

There were 391 finishers in the race won by Oliver Oldfield of Tamar Trotters in 00:35.35.