Its Grim up North Running was launched in February 2016, by me (Diane) and Cath.  We had the idea that we wanted to host…

 

Beautiful Races in Beautiful Places

 

We had the right location, our doorstep Yorkshire with a host of beautiful places: Kirkstall Abbey, Bolton Abbey, Masham, Temple Newsam and the Glorious Leeds & Liverpool Canal to mention a few.

 

We are  passionate about combining all of the elements of running that runners love such as: interesting routes, great camaraderie, and a sense of achievement, a medal and not to mention chocolate, cakes and local ales.

 

We are very keen to embrace runners of all abilities, ages, affiliated or unaffiliated.  It can be very daunting do a race for the first time or a distance for the first time and we get enquires asking if we think they may be too slow – no one is! 

 

We do not have cut off times, the only time we would stop a runner is in the event it was getting dark or if we think a runner’s safety is being compromised.  We do try, where possible to help runners with families, when a parent is taking part in an event, their children have helped to give out medals, goody bags, and drinks… this means all the family can be included. 

 

It’s Grim up North Running is unique in the sense that we cater for all distance running: 5k, 10k, Half Marathon, Marathon through to a 32 mile Ultramarathon.   We do this by hosting multiple races at each event.  We really want to bring runners together, socially, so that they can share their experiences and do what runners do well – ‘talk about running’. 

 

I know from personal experience, when I have completed an event, there is always a feeling of ‘is that it’.  Not with us, after all our events, there is home baking, food and refreshments and even the odd tipple. We always encourage people to ‘hang around’, socialise, chat and make new friends.

 

The really lovely thing for us is to see some runners moving through the distances, we had one of our regular runners last week run her first half marathon, and she had previously run 10ks with us.  Another thing that we enjoy is seeing runners returning and running more than one of our events.

 

We like to do our bit for the runners.  Last week at the Sir Titus Trot our participants raised £200 for 2 of our runners who were running for charities close to their hearts.  We have worked closely with Alison Ogle and the Farsley Flyers, who have helped us tremendously with marshalling and route running. 

 

We are looking for other local clubs to help with marshalling in return we will donate money into the clubs funds.  If any clubs or individuals would be interested in helping out at any of our events, please contact info@itsgrimupnorthrunning.co.uk or Diane on 07550076455.

 

We are venturing into new territory, in 3 weeks’ time on Sunday 23^rd October where we will be holding our first 10k Road Race in Bramley.  We hope to work closely with other clubs in Leeds and with Ben from Run Leeds to set up another three 5k and 10k Road Races, possibly in Chapeltown, Beeston and another suburb of the city.

 

Check out It’s Grim Up North Running: http://runleeds.co.uk/r/its-grim-up-north-running/