# Kielder Dark Sky 10k



## Chris Hobson (Jan 5, 2020)

*Kielder Forest Dark Sky 10K*

Looking for slightly more interesting events to do, rather than just another ordinary distance run, Liz and I entered the Kielder Forest 10k in Northumberland. Having done most of the 10k events in our area, we have decided to start wandering a little further afield, in this case around three and a half hours to our digs, plus a half hour drive to and from the event. We stayed at Pine Lodge at Bellingham near Hexham for just one night. This was a collection of buildings next to a caravan site. Our building had three en-suite rooms with a shared kitchen. Our room had a king size bed, tea making kit, telly, wifi and en-suite loo and shower. The place was very clean and very modern. There were keypad locks on the doors so we didn’t have to bother with keys but had to make sure that we saved the number to our phones.

The event was a 10k run in the woodlands that went off at 17:00, this meant that it was after dark, so head torches were compulsory. The terrain was relatively tough with some challenging hills and quite a bit of mud, so nobody was expecting to score a PB. Some runners were accompanied by dogs, something that I have often seen at parkruns but never before on an organised 10k. Kielder castle appears to be not an actual castle but one of those houses in the style of a castle. The venue seems to be a kind of hub for outward bound, yomping and mountain biking activities, there is a carpark, loos and a cycle shop on the site. Winter runs bring an added challenge when it comes to deciding what to wear. You don’t want to get too hot while running but you don’t want to freeze to death waiting for the off. It was fairly mild for the time of year so I settled on two tee shirts, a hoody, a florescent vest and an ultra vest. The latter was to stash my phone, glasses, car keys, waterproofs in case it rained, plus some recovery snacks. I carried a small drink bottle as there were no drink stations on the course. The woodland route was marked with fluorescent arrows and there were marshals to keep us all on the right track, I don’t think that anyone got lost. Liz was a little more run fit than I was as she has been going out on short runs on a regular basis since before Christmas. My training for this event consisted of three runs of 5k, 5.5k and 6k done on alternate days over the past week. I was encouraged by the fact that my 1k splits had gradually gone down from about six and a half minutes to five and a half minutes in quite a short time. I’m at a level now that a 10k isn’t too much of a challenge although the difficult terrain made this one quite a bit more difficult. On the actual run my 1k splits were all between six and ten minutes and I lost count slightly meaning that I arrived at the finish when I thought that I still had 2k to go. Without my reading glasses I can see the split times on my watch but the stuff that is in smaller writing I can’t see. My best time for the distance is around 48 minutes but obviously my lack of run fitness and the difficult course meant that I got a much slower time of 01:13:34 Position 137/196. Liz came in at 01:43:05 Position 191/196. For both of us it was our worst 10k time ever although for fairly sound reasons. After the race I got my self re-hydrated at the drink station and downed some coconut boost balls and an Aldi peanut & choc chip cacao brownie bar. Finally I wandered back to the car, stripped off my sweaty kit and zipped myself into a dry-robe. When Liz came in she just jumped straight into the car and we headed back to our digs to get showered and have a bite to eat before turning in for an early night. We got up nice and early and had an uneventful trip home. I’m just a little stiff today but not bad considering that I was a little under prepared. So there we go, another run completed, a slightly unusual and enjoyable event.


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## Pigeon (Jan 5, 2020)

Well done, sounds great! Kielder is one of my favourite places to holiday, so peaceful up there. The walking and mountain biking are great. It's a dark sky park because it's so far from a city, there's a cool observatory up there that we've been to a few times. Glad you had a nice time!


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## Chris Hobson (Jan 5, 2020)

Unfortunately it was cloudy so we didn't get to see the starry sky.


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## Grannylorraine (Jan 7, 2020)

Well done for doing this whatever your times were.  I am not keen on running around the roads where I live after dark in case I slip on wet leaves or something.

To change the subject slightly I seem to remember some sort of bet/forfeit by you if your wife ran the London Marathon.  Has this been done yet?


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## Chris Hobson (Jan 7, 2020)

I was totally up for it but Liz wouldn't let me do it. I think that she was worried that I would get arrested.


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## everydayupsanddowns (Jan 10, 2020)

Shame about the clouds Chris, but it sounds like a lovely event!


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