Runners discover new countryside and cake

“The only race I’ve attended where the run briefing included a warning to look out for the bonfire burning in the middle of the path,” added regular participant Laura Mella on her social media post afterwards, which also included her expressions of ‘concentration, exhaustion and fury’, as she put it, while she tackled the route’s many ups and downs.

The series of 10k (ish) monthly trail runs has been operating since 2021, but this year has finally become official, and after the first two events, the six-run series will culminate with prize-winners in June, before the start of a new six-race autumn series ending in December.

Members of the Steel City Striders running club came up with the idea of monthly trail runs for the Outdoor City 18 months ago as the post-lockdown running restrictions were easing.

Many local runners had been out discovering lesser-known trails and paths near their homes, but recognised that the increased interest in off road running had sent lots of people to well-used paths in well known areas, often some distance away in the Peak District. Maybe some of those runners might like to discover trails and paths in their own local parks and woodlands?

So the Steel City Trail 10 team launched a series of trial runs to test out routes and locations starting from Bradway, Whirlow, Wincobank, the Shire Brook Valley, the Porter Valley, Redmires and most recently Parkwood Springs.

Working with Sheffield City Council (landowners of most of the routes) a priority was to make sure all runs were accessible by public transport, walking or cycling, and the team are also in the process of contacting local Friends and conservation groups in each area.

“It brings people’s attention to these groups, we think it’s valuable to link with them and their efforts to try and regenerate and care for these areas,” said Kate Scott of the SCT10 organising team.

The runs (on the third Sunday of every month) are open to all runners, and free to take part, but participants are asked to donate a couple of pounds if they can, to help local conservation. Several hundred pounds have already been donated to the Friends of Whirlow Brook Park and the Shire Brook Valley Heritage Group, with official donations being set up to groups in other locations soon.

Malcolm Baggaley organises the official series, and believes it could be one of the only competitive running events where standing and pointing the direction to other runners can boost your chances of victory, with runners only gaining points for their best four of the six runs.

“You’ll get points for your finishing position, and bonus points for volunteering too,” he explained. “We need volunteers to put these events on, so we hope this will encourage runners to volunteer too. And quite often someone brings cake, and that’s also an encouragement to volunteers.”

Baker (and volunteer) Roger Walters brought a lemon drizzle cake on Sunday which went down well as runners recovered their breath after the event under the Bardwell Road railway bridge.

Sunday’s run round Parkwood Springs and Wardsend Cemetery took in the spectacular but largely unknown city views from the developing country park above the River Don, and many runners said they had no idea of the countryside that existed near the city centre. The run also took in some locations organisers described as ‘gritty’ including a challenging metal hillside ascent over a railway bridge, a decaying ski village, and a surprise bonfire near the river where someone had set a shipping pallet alight earlier in the morning.

“I love running round these parts of Sheffield I don't know,” posted Sam Ramsden after the 1000 feet or so of hillclimbing, “and I think I really enjoyed it!”

The next event takes in more spectacular views (and hills) at Wincobank hill fort on 19th March.

See Steel City Trail 10 on social media for more info