Monsal Trail April Half Marathon Trail

Race Description

Organised by Nice Work and starting from the old Bakewell Station site on the Monsal Trail, Derbyshire, at 09:00, this is a genuine rail-trail race rather than a road half dressed up as scenic - it runs on the former Midland Railway line, on a mix of tarmac and hard-packed, traffic-free trail. It's part of a weekend event, with the organisers offering both the half marathon and 10k across Saturday and Sunday so runners can choose which day, or both, suits them.

The half marathon route runs out and back towards Millers Dale, taking in all four of the trail's tunnels - Headstone, Cressbrook, Litton and Chee Tor, each around 400 metres long and lit during the day - and crossing the Headstone (Monsal) Viaduct, a five-arch Victorian structure roughly 21 metres above the valley, in both directions. That combination of enclosed tunnel running and the open viaduct crossing, twice over, is what distinguishes it from the shorter race sharing the same start.

With wide views across the Derbyshire Dales and a flat, former-railway gradient throughout, it suits runners wanting a scenic, traffic-free half marathon for spring marathon training, and anyone keen to experience the full run of tunnels and the viaduct rather than just a taste of the trail.