The opening 2km is through woodland trails, almost completely flat, with some nice sloppy mud in places. The next 800m is open trail along a bridleway, and aside from a few puddles, is pretty easy going. The fun begins with the sharp right turn towards the 3km marker shown on the map below. Here the descent into the woods begin. It is VERY slippery, particularly on Lap 2 when the top layer of grass has worn away. Sliding down on your backside is perfectly acceptable and probably the easiest way to negotiate some of the down hills.
At the bottom of the valley floor there is a little loop, running through and over streams and across completely saturated and boggy banks. This is the muddiest section of the route. After this the uphill climb begins which is a good challenge and becomes more testing as the race goes on as the ground becomes more slick and slippery. When runners emerge they rejoin the bridleway and start to head back towards the start/finish area.
Runners stick to the right at the split to go around for their second lap (10km only), 5km runners and 10km runners upon completion of their second lap bear left as the split to finish under the big red finish gantry.
