The Wye Valley Greenway will open for the time in its history on the 1st April 2021 and we are extremely excited to be bringing the first organised event to the Greenway and the Tidenham Tunnel. The charitable organisation Greenways and Cycleroutes has been behind reinvigorating this section of the Wye Valley Railway with a new lease of life; removing the old track, refurbishing and lighting the 1.1km long Tidenham Tunnel and resufacing a large portion of the route with a mix of compact stone path and tarmac. The Wye Valley Greenway is a shared use path, to be used and enjoyed by cyclists, walkers and runners.
The original railway ran from Chepstow to Monmouth. The last passenger train ran in 1959, but trains from nearby quarries only finally stopped in 1990. We are in fact based at one of these quarries for our event. dayhouse quarry, now known as the National Diving and Activity Centre, offers a huge array of exciting adventurous activities and overnight accommodation.
The race starts at Wyedean School and heads along the rail path towards Tintern. Tidenham tunnel is 3km into the race and is itself over 1km long. There are great views along the wye valley as the two routes head to their turn around points before retracing their steps back to the finish line at the station.
If you would like to visit the tunnel and wye valley greenway please take a look at the visitors information page on the Wye Valley Greenway website which includes info on opening times and access points.
We are very pleased to be offering two colourburst runs this year, 500m and 2km fun runs with powder paint. All routes stay within the playing fields at Wyedean School. This is a great run for all the family, particularly the little runners, with everyone getting a medal at the finish line.
With a new venue this year, our routes are slightly tweaked. There is no longer a long walk to the dive centre, the start is now at Wyedean School, the same location as the parking. The routes are predominantly unchanged, on the old railway track cutting through the forest. There is new 500m road section in each direction, with a small rise and fall either end, other than that, the route is extremely flat and still very good for recording a fast time.
The new start/finish point does put us further away from the tunnel entrance. This means the 6km turn around point is just before the tunnel, 6km runners do not go into the tunnel. The 10km and Half Marathon do go into the tunnel. There is more info on the route descriptions page.
Format
We anticipate that we will be able to hold this race in normal race conditions, whilst maintaining a covid safe environment. This means runners will register in wave of up to 100 runners, but we retain the option to reduce the wave sizes to 30 for example, should this be the prevailing guidance of the time.
Runners will register for Wave 1-6 when they register, but we retain the option to make a Wave 1A, 1B etc. To ensure you start with friends, should we need to chop the wave sizes down, please enter exactly the same predicted finish time, to the second. For example, a lot of runners will select 1hr (1:00:00) as the predicted finish time for a 10km, but to help us find pairs of runners who might wave to start together, please enter an unusual finish time such as 1:00:11 for example.
There are no cut offs, we welcome runners of all abilities. Please note the event is not open to people would like to purely walk the event, but if you need to do a mix of running/jogging/walking to complete your distance then we are very happy with that.
Runners with buggies are very welcome. Please note the terrain is a mix of compact stone path, road, forest path and tarmac for the 6km. The 10km and Half Marathon has some very uneven sections which we would be more suited to a specific off road running buggy and you may need to walk over these short sections. We would ask you start at the back of your wave when we move to wave starts. Unfortunately none of the events are suitable for canicross.
There are great group discount rates for groups of 10 or more runners taking part in races of any distance, on the same date. 10-19 runners save 15%, 20-49 runners save 20%, 50+ runners save 25%. All bookings must be made in advance of race day to qualify for the discounted rate. We ask all groups to be registered at least four weeks in advance of the race date to we have the opportunity to top up our medal order if necessary.
Prizes
All our finishers receive a top of the range custom medal as well as a buffet of fresh fruit and other tasty treats. We also recognise a few of the speedy runners on the following basis.
Prize Categories
Top 3 male and top 3 female
First U20 male and female
First 20-39 male and female
First 40-49 male and female
First 50-59 male and female
First 60-69 male and female
First 70+ male and female
The final number of prizes awarded is determined by the number of finishers for each gender in a given race distance. If there are more than 100 finishers then the full range range of awards are made as shown above. If there are less than 50-100 finishers then the top 3 finishers overall will be awarded a prize. If there are less than 50 then only the winner will be awarded a prize. We do not have any winner's prizes for any of the children's events as would like to keep this participation focused.
There is no on the day prize giving because of the multi wave, multi start time format of the events. Prize winners will be contacted mid week via email.
