Race Reports
Stort30 2025
October 26th saw the 13th running of the Stort30, a stunningly pretty 30 mikle trail race in Hertforfdshire. This is the first race we ever put on back in 2012.
The route goes from Bishops Stortford to Rye house and then returns back to Bishops Stortford by the same route. Apart from a short stretch of road at the beginning and end the route is all riverside path and very flat and if it's dry very fast. Course records are 3:01:16 by Jack Oates in 2017 and the female course record is 3:29 by Mary Menon in 2018.
The race has 5 checkpoints stocked with various cold sweets and snacks and the usual coke, squash and water and privision for GF, Vegan and vegetarian is supplied on the CP's.
Runners started arriving at 7am onwards to register and collect their numbers and any T-Shirts or other Merchandise they have ordered. We had 74 entries online, though one person had erntered twice! We had 11 entries on the day also. With a few no shows on the day we had 71 starters.
The race started at 9am spot on with sunshine but cool weather, Runners do two laps of the field before heading out onto the short road section and onto the riverside paths.
It was forecast for rain in the afternoon but thankfully apart from it being chilly and a few drips it stayed dry and breezy which meant the course was mostly dry and good underfoot.
This is a marked course with custom blue signs and red and white confirmation tape every hundred metres or so, we provide a .gpx file and route description so it's minimal navogation as long as you keep beside the river and cross when the signs tell youto, though we always get a couple of people that insist on adding a few bonus miles onto the course!
Our first person back was Phillip Morgan in 3:28:59
Next was Nick Smith in 3:45:53
3rd back was Tom Puncher in 3:52:35
Next was our 1st female Morvan Lean in 3:53:02
Second Female was Karen Pickering in 4:16:11
3rd female was Jayne Chappels in 4:20:00
For the full results please visit our results page https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=411597
The final runner was Andy Rose in 6:47:49 closely followed by the sweepers.
No DNF's at all, we rarely get any issues on such a nice course.
David, Will and Tom our 3 Course markers and sweepers, who collected all the signage on the way back.
All in all it was a successful day and that is mostly due to the great runners, fantastic volunteers and great team we had at the event. Thanks to the CP teams who sat out in the cold force feeding bananas and coke into runners and our volunteer manager Sara.
The date is already set for next years races, October the 26th and entries are open with our new dynamic pricing system. The 1st 25 entries get the event for £35 for commiting early and support our pre event costs, the next 25 entries get it for £45 and after then it is full price of £55.
Enter here https://www.challenge-running.com/e/stort30-10280
As usual you can insure your race place for an additional 15% of the cost and pay in instalments of up to 6 months to spread the costs, you can also defer or dell your place up to 4 weeks before the event which we think is quite a generous policy. See our policies page for more info.
Photos from the event can be viewed and purchased here Ben Roake Photography
Please leave us a review or see what others though of the event on our reviews page for the event https://www.challenge-running.com/e/stort30-10280/reviews
We look forwards to seeing you at our next event or next year.
Lindley and the team.