We arrived at Chorley in good time to collect running numbers from the HQ in the Flaming Grill pub. We had at least half an hour to wait before heading to the start area in the park down the road so we had a sit down in the pub and watched everyone else come through. William, as usual, managed to make friends with another little boy whilst we were waiting and they were happily chatting to one another.
We headed to the start a little before 9am as that was when the children's run set off. I was running with William and Andy ran with Sam. The run started and William flew down the path through the park. We reached a gate that we had to go around and that led us onto a section of grass. It was very wet and our feet were soaked in seconds. William kept running though, having been reassured that we had spare shoes and socks in the car! A sharp turn half way in saw us head back the way we came but through the woods this time. I just caught sight of Andy and Sam a little ways behind us and it looked like Sam was having a fab run.
William flew through the woods and loved it when we came across a huge fallen log that we had to climb over. He soon picked up the pace again and all of a sudden we were back out on the path and headed to the finish. He received his medal and immediately asked if we could go round again! We walked over to the path and cheered on Sam as he came in shortly afterwards. I think the trail element of the run must be very appealing to little boys!
Shortly after the children's run it was Andy's turn to set off.
He already had wet feet from the grass so wasn't too worried about the river crossings that were coming up! One ended up being only ankle deep but the other was up to his knees. He arrived back in 1hr 5min and collected his medal and tech t-shirt. He said it was a hard run but fun. The only possible drawback for him was that there was no water station (although from looking at the photos afterwards it's entirely possible that a few people had a mouthful of river water when they fell over at the crossing!).
Needless to say we all had a change of shoes when we got back to the car, feeling strangely satisfied peeling our socks off! We all agreed it was well worth the trip to Chorley, the run itself was great and the medal and tech t-shirt made it extremely good value for the registration fee. The boys absolutely loved the fun run so I can see us heading back for next year's run!
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