The Slay the Dragon course takes you in and around the villages of Hinton, Dinnington and Allowenshay. It’s an undulating 6 mile course of multi-terrain with country lanes, rough tracks, stiles, gates, fields and hills and breathtaking country views.
About the race
When: – Sunday 25 February 2018 @ 10.30am
Where: – Hinton St George Village Hall, Hinton, TA17 8SB
Cost: – £11.44
Organisers website: – www.slaythedragon.co.uk
The Church of St George includes 13th century work by masons of Wells cathedral. Hinton St George is regarded as one of the best kept villages in Somerset and is known to have been a settlement as far back as the 12th century.
There are 3 distances at the Slay the Dragon; 10k Slay the Dragon, 4k The Dragon’s Tail and 2k The Baby Dragon.
Race Aces
Got to the race very early so managed to park on the grass right in front of race HQ.
The race promises to be a scenic one and it didn’t disappoint. It was mostly across country fields and over churned up mud, thankfully the ground was dry so I didn’t get as muddy as I’d anticipated.
I always enjoy it when someone different starts a race and the town crier started this one.
This race is very good value for money at just over £10.
There were photographers around the course taking race photos and they were very reasonably priced, so much so, I actually bought my first ever race photo (this isn’t the one I bought below!) and the Facebook page also had lots of photos of runners too.
Race Unlaces
The ground was VERY technical underfoot. The race was held in between two weekends of heavy snowfall and areas which should have been muddy were frozen solid and difficult to navigate across. Obviously if you enjoy this kind of terrain this would be a plus point for you. I was very worried about twisting my ankle in these areas and the impact on my joints was immense.
The races takes you around country fields and there was one section in particular where you have to climb over a stile. That’s no problem for me, this is the kind of trail runs I enjoy, however, one stile had a huge long line that you had to queue in to get over. I probably had to wait over 3 minutes in a queue before I got my turn to get over it! Which isn’t great if you’ve got a time goal in mind.
At race HQ they were selling bacon baps, which is always great, but for some reason they’d stopped selling them after the race was done and I was pretty devastated that I didn’t get to have one. Perhaps I should have run a little bit faster.
My Race Stats:
Time: 1:12:21 | Mile splits: 9:21, 14:37, 10:33, 11:59, 10:09, 14:14, 1:39
Position: 163/197
Total runners: 197 | Fastest Male: 38:03 | Fastest Female: 48:56 | Slowest: 1:28:05
Organisers’ Social Media Information
Facebook: Slay the Dragon Run | Twitter: @slaydragon10k
Distances from Major Cities
London: 2hr 48min ~ 137 miles | Birmingham: 2hr 38min ~ 154 miles | Bristol: 1hr 25min ~ 45 miles | Cardiff: 1hr 46min ~ 94 miles | Exeter: 1hr 04min ~ 42 miles
Overall star rating:
Conclusion
This race was a lovely scenic trail run which, I personally found very difficult as a beginner to trail running. The weather the previous week didn’t help much with that and that’s obviously nothing to do with the race itself it’s just one of those things. Might I have enjoyed it had it been more muddy and soft underfoot, perhaps. I was very worried about twisting my ankle because the churned up mud in the fields was very difficult to run on and I walked several times because of it. It always fascinates me how amazing some of these technical trail runners are, I always think they must have very strong ankles!
This was a lovely small town race and I enjoyed the town crier starting off the runners and it was definitely good value for money. The medal was a cute dragon sticker which one of the local children had drawn.
Race HQ didn’t hold much entertainment for spectators but it was only at a village hall so it was as entertaining as would be expected.
Personally I wouldn’t do this race again only because of how difficult I found it but I would recommend it to anyone that is experienced in running across difficult terrain as the views were really lovely.
Please note that the above opinions on the race are my own and based upon my own running skill level (I would consider myself to be an average runner) and while I’ve made every effort to ensure anything contained within this post is accurate, please check the race organiser’s website for full information.
If there’s any more information about the race that you’d like to add or ask, please leave a comment below
That medal is super cute and now you don’t have to wonder about that race:)