Dodging Creepy Crawlies at the Crosspool Crawl

Sheffield traffic meant that we showed up to the race with only a few minutes to spare. However this turned out to be a good strategy since the start field was packed with midges feeding hungrily off the assembled runners. Suddenly a dusk run around three reservoirs on a damp evening didn't seem such a wise idea, but luckily we'd all opted for leggings and it was too late to "do a Kim" (bail), so we doused ourselves in the communal insect repellent and within a few minutes we were off.

Keen to outrun the midges, we all set off much too fast. The hill up towards Redmires Resevoirs was a bit more challenging than we anticipated and as it kicked up we were getting overtaken left right and centre. But we were spurred on by all the colourful signs of encouragement made by children from the local primary school, and pretty soon we were running round a beautifully calm reservoir.

On leaving the road to take the path along the water's edge, we passed through a narrow gate with a jazzy "Halfway there!" sign on, where another dense cloud of midges had decided to hang out. Surprised Suze was busy gawping at how we could be halfway there when the watch only said 1.8 miles, so gulped a mouthful of several hundred midges. This unintended protein hit seemed to do the trick and the second half (plus a bit) of the race was completed at a much quicker pace, despite some slippy trails. There were some fantastic views over the reservoir and we all agreed that 4.5 miles ("parkrun plus a bit") is a nice race distance.

Well done to Happy Hannah and Brilliant Bee for running their first race with GoodGym, especially to Bee who made the step up from 5k with ease, and sprinted down the finishing straight looking fresh as a daisy!