25th February, 2024
Where: Bath
Distance: Half marathon (other distances available)
Terrain: Tarmac path. Some inclines
Organiser: Relish Running
Cost: £42
For full transparency I will say up front that I am a huge fan of Relish Running (but not affiliated in anyway). I’ve been running in their events for a few years now and they are up there with the best races you’ll find in South Wales and the West.
If you’re driving, you get to the event by using a Park & Ride in Bath. It’s very easy and drops you right by the event village. There’s always plenty of coffee trucks and food vans for spectators, plus race number collection and bag drop. Toilet queues can get very long so get in there early.
In February I took on the out-and-back half. It’s important I call it that as Relish put on multiple distance races at all their events. At this particular race there was a 5k, an out-and-back 10k, a trail 10k, an out-and-back half and a trail half. There was also a short colour run for kids.
Out-and-back means you basically run in a straight line up a path which used to be a railway line, then turn round at a designated point and come back on your self. And in the half I was doing you then repeat it.
If you do the 10k or the half marathon you get to run through the two tunnels – hence the name. This is what makes this event truly special. In total, the tunnels are about 2km long (one 1500m one 500m). While the lights have been made a bit brighter than they used to be, it still is an incredibly strange sensation, but very enjoyable. It’s hard to tell if you’re going up or down hill (or neither) or whether you’re running fast or slow.
All good so far – but there are reasons I have heard from other runners why they don’t enjoy this event as much. Out-and-back courses can be a little bit dull (although I’d argue here you get to run each of the tunnels four times in the half marathon which is great). The race starts on grass and there is a bottleneck at the very beginning which slows you down (although I still got my half PB here). And the sheer number of runners racing all different distances can make it hard to know who you’re up against. If you like chasing people down in a race, this can be tough when you don’t know what distance the people in front are doing.
But, I would absolutely recommend this race – especially if you’ve never been through the tunnels before. Relish events are incredibly well organised, very inclusive, catering for all abilities of runner and the tunnels are just a joy to run through.