2025 Frostbite

Organisation and Parking

To round off the Frostbite season the last race was at Jubilee Park in Huntingdon. With trophies at stake for some clubs there was a large turnout, and getting to the venue an hour before race start was essential to getting one of the car parking places directly at the football ground. Alternative parking was about 15 minutes walk away, and plentiful. Again the race organisers stressed the need to park in an arranged location and not on the soft verges on the approach road. Jubilee Park is a football club venue and the clubhouse is open to runners as a bag drop and there is plent of room, toilets and a cafe with hot drinks, bacon rolls and other temptations. For once the weather for this event was not (a) blowing a hooley, and (b) lashing with rain, both fairly traditional for this course.

The Course

Jubilee Park proper is a series of flat and maintained football pitches, and the first kilometer of the race goes around these until we exit the park through a hedge gap. This means the start of the race can be quite fast as people use the firm surface to get into their rhythm. Jubilee Park is on the top of a rounded hill and the course drops down gradually off this modest lump on field edges, quite narrow in places; so pays to get to your chosen position while you have space in the first stage of the run.

The course winds its way along a drainage ditch, following field boundaries and switches back on the opposite side of the stream to make its way gradually, back uphill until the final mile, where its level and straight. This last section allows you to see all the runners in front of you and is much wider than the other parts, allowing a bit more leeway for a 'last gasp' overtaking effort, if thats where you are at.

The final 500m is back on the football playing fields again with only rabbit holes to watch out for.

It is definitely possible to wear spikes for race with only a single piece of concrete hardstanding to negotiate about a mile in.

On The Day

The "starters orders" included a warning about mud on the course, and a fallen tree which we would have to negotiate. Mud ? We've done mud at Hinchingbrooke at the previous race, so nothing to worry about.

The mass start was pretty congested but not narrow, and the conditions underfoot were pretty good; apart from rabbit holes and a few (hazard taped) tree branches. Emerging from the fields and down into the farmland the field edges were narrower, allowing only two-abreast at best, but still firm going. As we descended the slight hill things started to get a bit squidgier as runoff from the fields naturally finds its way to this area of the course, and we ran next to a narrow drainage stream that was there for a reason.

At about 2 miles we turned back up the opposite side of the stream, working back up the gentle hill. Ahh .... this is where the fun started. The farmer, who has generously permitted the race on their land, had been dredging the drainage stream. Everything that came out of the stream ended up on the path, and had been ground down by the heavy machinery, leaving deep glutious mud. There was no 'good firm line' - it was skiddy, deep and hard work. This continued for the next two miles, always gently uphill. If you had spikes or didn't have my 'heavy ground pressure' you were probably alright, but for me; it was a case of grinding on and practising my baroque swearing.

Finally the uphill mud ended and we had about half a mile of realtively good going until hitting the last flat mile section. Unfortunaltely our friend, the mud, had also visited this section. More than one runner lost their shoes, and the wider path just allowed the mud to be wider as well. Any attempt to put on a sprint just led to more slippage, and only once we got onto the field did it improve; just in time for the end.

This year this was easily the hardest Frostbite course. In its defense this is usually much firmer going - so dont be put off, next year could be either frozen or baked dry. It takes a different mindset to enjoy the race - timing is just not important; staying upright ? thats the goal.

Roll on next year !