Sunday March 17^th, 2019

Debbie Montague

Oundle 20 is only in its second year and is run by Nice Work, who organise a number of races around the country and is perfect timing for anyone doing spring marathons. It’s around £30 to enter and has a limit of 600 runners.

The race HQ is at Oundle Primary School and takes runners out through the villages towards Peterborough and before looping back into Oundle. There is no parking at the school itself, so it’s best to get there earlier to secure a parking space in the surrounding roads. The school hall was open with seating area, places to leave bags and a small stand selling sweets and cakes. Portaloos were provided near the start line and they had also opened the changing rooms which also had toilets, but not many.

Race start is a little walk away from the school and we headed off at 9.30. Course was all on roads with plenty of marshals on route. It was undulating although not quite as bad as Stamford 30k lol. Also, when not sheltered by trees there was a lot of wind and it made the going a bit tough. Especially at around mile 18, running into wind and slight uphill was not good and many runners were complaining about that section when they finished. 6 Water stops were provided roughly at miles 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18 miles.

The finish of the race was on the grass playing field of the school where you were presented with your medal and water. Long-sleeve t-shirts were also there for runners and have to say it was a really nice shirt with the list of the villages that you had been through on the back.

Course Route

Course Elevation

Good Points

• Chip timed
• Close to home
• Reasonable price £30
• Great medal and T-shirt
• Well marshalled
• Changing facilities

Not so good Points

• Cold showers
• Parking on streets

I enjoyed the race, it was well marshalled, the course was very enjoyable (apart from the wind in places) and the facilities although not fantastic were good. The only things that let it down were the parking arrangements and the fact the showers were cold so unusable. But as the race was so close to home it wasn’t really an issue. I’d definitely do this one again and I think the other WJ runners that were there thought the same.

If anyone is interested entries are already open for 2020 and more details can be found at https://www.nice-work.org.uk/races/Oundle20