Veni, vidi, vici (The Yule Yomp @ Tatton Park)

Signing up for the Tatton Yule Yomp seemed like a good idea at the time. When you sign up for a run you never know what the weather will be (especially in the UK), but we should have foreseen the likelihood of freezing temperatures. Never mind, a run is a run, right? There is nothing like a 10km run to warm you up!

TeamTims was one man down (or rather one woman down) but we were still determined to go through with this but the warning of it being “wet and slippery” had me slightly worried although not entirely surprised.

Getting There

The drive to Knutsford (or as the SatNav pronounced Canootsford) was as uneventful as a jaunt up the M6 usually is and after a quick stop at Sandbach services (which I imagined would be bigger somehow) we arrived in Knutsford to be welcomed by free Sunday parking! To be honest, I was expecting more parking problems with there being 1000 runners but there were plenty of spaces.

So, down to register then back up to the start fortuitously meeting up with missing member of TeamTims who graciously offered to provide team support duties (carrying the bags).

The Run

And we were off!

The temperature was below zero therefore the ground was cold and hard but the “off-road” terrain made it easy enough to run on, although we did see one person slip and fall. The grounds of Tatton Park are I am told very nice but there was blanket of fog so not much to see, I imagine a summer run at Tatton would be very good.

The first half the run was easy enough. At the 5km mark one of the stewards helpfully informed me that it was “..all down hill from here.”. That heartened me and I pressed on realising later that he was being metaphorical, the second half of the run contained many up-hills. It was good to receive encouragement from both stewards and spectators, especially when I realised I should have done more training, I needed all the encouragement I could get!

The last leg of the run was on the road which was thankfully not icy. Unfortunately it was all up hill and around corners. This mixed with the fog meant it was difficult to see how much road was left until the finish.

But the welcome site of the finish appeared slowly through the fog and I realised I had some energy left so I managed a sprint finish!



Many people in fancy dress provided a welcome distraction, I would particularly like to thank a reindeer and a fairy who help me get into the zone. Obviously Santa costumes were prevalent and I think it was a Santa who came first…I think.



All in all a great day out. We all very much enjoyed it and will definitely be signing up for this event next year. Well done and thanks to the organisers for doing a brilliant job.