It’s been a busy few weeks in the White Star Running world, with both ups and downs. From race cancellations leading to new events, and gaining a brilliant award for one of our favourite races! Read on to find out what’s been going on over at WSR recently, with two massive bits of news from race director and WSR founder/owner Andy Palmer.
Spring Larmer morphs into Winter Larmer
We’ve taken the decision to postpone Spring Larmer to December for 2021 only. Covid has caused a lot of doubt, and we feel March is still too early to start mass events again.
Winter Larmer is now a thing. Visualise Christmas-themed medals with rampant peacocks, fancy dress and tutus, and a cold frosty climb up the famed Larmer hills.
The Rushmore Estate, which owns and maintains thousands of acres of prime Wiltshire and Dorset land, has bent over backwards to make this event work. Larmer Tree Gardens is a premiere wedding venue, and the team has shifted frantic brides and grooms to make room for us!
Rest assured there will be hills and muddy puddles and a river… maybe.
We won’t have hot food as part of the finishers’ package this time around, but we’re working with a Dorset cake company to have Christmas puds for everyone to take away, including gluten free and vegan options. This is a big part of what we do: keeping it local and helping our friends and partners to create something new. So, it’s a lot like Spring Larmer, but different. More news on the Larmer venue coming in future blogs.
Oh, and if that’s not enough, you can still earn the Spring Larmer medals virtually – same distances available, to be run on the same weekend. Enter here: https://whitestar.fullonsport.com/
A brief history of Run Jurassic
Let me take you back in time. A long time ago, Dorset was covered in dinosaurs. I’m not talking about WSR regular grumpy grandads Gordon and Jim either… I mean proper sea monsters and the Jurassic Park bitey snappy lookalikes. The dinosaur-friendly tropical paradise disappeared over time and formed the Jurassic Coast. In Dorset, the area from Lyme Regis to Old Harry Rocks is the Jurassic Coast.
‘So what?’ you cry. Well, we were asked by the effervescent Lucy Culkin, CEO and (quite importantly) runner, at the Jurassic Coast Trust to create a fundraiser and create awareness for the area.
We all know there are loads of races along this coastline. Local club races are popular and are often shorter distances. There are numerous epic walks, and many of the other races tend to be ultra-distance events. Some are pretty decent too; Votwo puts on the very well-run and popular Jurassic Coast Challenge. We always felt that the Jurassic Coast could offer something more than ultramarathons and long walks, so we sat down with the trust and asked them what they wanted.
They wanted to take a little bit of ownership back. To create something that, with a bit of training, anyone could have a go at. So, we created Run Jurassic with a kids’ race, a 10k, a half-marathon, a marathon and a 50k ultramarathon. The idea was to work with the partners and landowners on the coastline to create a little bit of understanding about this UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We’ve written numerous race reports on this event before, so we won’t bore you with the in-depth stuff. If you want to see more about the event, check out Steve Cousins from Film My Run or the lovely people from the 404 Collective.
Run Jurassic wins a GOLD award
Yeah, yeah, we know all that about Run Jurassic. So, what’s new?
Well, we are now award winners for Run Jurassic 2019! Myself, and the whole team at WSR, are chuffed to bits to say that we’ve been awarded a GOLD Award at the Dorset Tourism Awards.
We worked really hard on this event and were up against some pretty stiff competition in our category of Tourism Event/Festival of the Year category. It’s incredible to have the recognition for the time and effort we put into this event, working closely with the Jurassic Coast Trust to make sure we were able to pull off the event with as little impact on the environment as possible, as well as raise awareness and money for the preservation of the coastline.
We couldn’t have done this without the support of the Jurassic Coast Trust. We also need to give a huge thank you to the Freshwater Beach Holiday Park where the event village was based and many of our hardy runners stayed overnight (despite the difficult weather conditions).
It’s not just our award either. It belongs to the whole White Star Running community, team members, runners, volunteers… Without you our events wouldn’t be what they are.
After the whole of Run Jurassic being impacted by Covid last year, we’re in full-on planning mode for 2021. We’re working with a reduced team at the moment, so the website is not yet fully updated, but you can get a flavour of the event here: https://runjurassic.co.uk/
If there are any topics you’d like to see Andy chat about in a future blog, please do contact us and let us know!
If you really need a laugh and you love a bit mundane, follow us for ‘Running industry news’ (LOL) on LinkedIn.