Title: What a lovely race!

I'm from Toronto, Canada, and was visiting my daughter in London. I decided to look for a trail race outside the city that we could get to reasonably easily. This was the only race that worked with my dates--and as it happens, my grandfather was from Colchester, and the race fell on my late father's birthday. Perfect! We took the train from Liverpool Station, arriving in Colchester in time to seek out the public toilets at the castle, and then call a taxi to take us to Brightlingsea, where we found a small gathering of runners. After a short briefing from Pete, we were off! The path beside the sea is quite exposed, but there was a pleasant breeze and a lovely view. Then we were on hard-packed paths with dense vegetation on either side (lots of stinging nettles!), crossed a farmer's field and ran a short distance down a country road (no cars, thankfully) before returning along the path by the water. We opted for only one loop (5 miles), but others ran two or even three. The post-race snacks were excellent, and we returned to Colchester for lunch and a bit of exploring, then back to London at the end of a tiring but exhilarating day. Thanks so much!