Halloween Hell Raiser

25th October 2015 – Crewe

At the same time a sea of Buckley Blues made their presence felt in the Flintshire 10k a smaller group made a foray over to Crewe to take part in a 9 mile trail race known as the Halloween Hell Raiser.

The name really is a misnomer – anyone expecting to be jumping through hoops of fire, swimming through bogs and crawling on their bellies under barbed wire would have been disappointed. Instead it is a pure trail run and excels in the things that are making trail running so popular. Hence it consists of a collection of grassy fields, quiet lanes, public footpaths, bridleways, the odd road crossing and a field of corn patiently waiting to be harvested. So in short a thoroughly enjoyable traipse across an area of Cheshire you might never see.

So it was that 6 members of Buckley lined up with another 80 runners and at the same moment almost 600 runners in the Flintshire 10k rushed from the start onto the streets of Mold, 86 of us sauntered off at a more relaxed pace out into the quiet Cheshire countryside. Of course fancy dress was encouraged but at that time on a Sunday morning personally I don’t need a mask to look ghoulish. However the start line was sprinkled with a liberal helping of ghosts, ghouls, and Halloween-themed outfits. I’m still uncertain whether Hayley had just had a heavy night or intended to look like a zombie.

The course benefited from the recent dry weather and was, in most places, was dry underfoot allowing a fairly mud-free experience – something some long suffering washing machines dotted around the North West probably appreciated as much as the runners.

Around an hour after starting we started to drift across the finish line and skipped the warm down for a hot shower in avid anticipation of cake and a cup of tea. And so to the prize haul … in short no one went home empty handed:

2 – Jez Brown – 2nd Overall / Team prize
6 – Simon Edwards – 1st M40 (can’t work it out but not complaining!) / Team prize
24 – Huw Lewis – Team prize
30 – Hayley Evans – 1st LV35
37 – Pete Roberts – 1st M70
46 – Hazel Berrett – 1st LV50

Huw originally thought he might have missed out – but Buckley also won the team prize so that wasn’t the case. All in all a fun event and yet another one to recommend for next year for those considering trying out something a little different.