2025 Frostbite

This year Fenland runners have stepped forwards to host one of the Frostbite series of races and had a new course for us to sample - Bawsey country park near Kings Lynn. 

The maps show its a lakeside run and the organisers sent out a mail warning of possible mud, and described the course as 'tough'. Hmmm...

"Lakes are flat", I thought. 

Organisation and Parking

The course starts and ends at the main car park and is about 50 minutes drive from Peterborough. Since the junior race starts at 9:45 the car park was fairly full by 09:15 but there were two further overflow car parks. The park management had organised a 50% discount on parking on the day, but otherwise this would be around £7.00, depending on how fast you ran and whether you were detained by the on-site cafe and its roaring log fire; so the discount should bring it down to £3.50 or so. The park is entirely funded by the parking fee and wern't charging the Frostbite League to host the race, so this seemed fair to me; especially since Frostbite race entry is free for WJ members.

There are toilets at the start area but no shelter other than the small cafe, and they of course, have customers to serve. On the day it was very cold (around zero) with plently of frost on the ground, but dry. As with most Frostbite courses if the weather is rainy then best to stay in your car until near the start time, or bring a brolly. These are multi-terrain races so you need to be prepared to deal with the weather conditions as they are on the day.

The Course

The start for the seniors is a wide and flat sandy area about 500m from the finish and car park. The area seems to be an old sand quarry, presumably forming the lakes at some time, and the course weaves its way around the lake and up some strong, but short, inclines. These will be either muddy or deep sand - so challenging. Of course there is the joy of running down again but care is needed because the course has many roots, uneven ground and difficult sections. Spikes can be worn but most people will wear trail shoes. If the weather has been particularly dry then road shoes might be Ok, but you might find problems on the muddy sections.

On The Day

It turns out that lakes may be flat, but lakesides are not. The total height gain was only modest but it was in a series of sharp hills and drops with the added benefit of either mud or sand. The general surface was mostly frosted but with some softer sections, and a very narrow diversion through trees that the marshalls had to put in to avoid a flooded path. This was probably needed the most care - low, strong, sunlight though trees and a narrow rooty path were made for tripping. The rest of the course was testing but mostly hard-packed and nicely runnable, and always extremely pretty when you raised youself to look around.

Roll on next year :-)