Race the Train is an annual cross country running

Cross country running

Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...

 event that takes place in Tywyn

Tywyn

Tywyn is a town and seaside resort on the Cardigan Bay coast of southern Gwynedd , in north Wales. The name derives from the Welsh tywyn and the town is sometimes referred to as Tywyn Meirionnydd...

, Mid Wales

Mid Wales

Mid Wales is the name given to the central region of Wales. The Mid Wales Regional Committee of the National Assembly for Wales covered the counties of Ceredigion and Powys and the area of Gwynedd that had previously been the district of Meirionydd. A similar definition is used by the BBC...

. The race is organised by Tywyn Rotary Club, and attracts runners from all over the world. In the main event, runners compete to beat a steam train on the preserved Talyllyn Railway

Talyllyn Railway

The Talyllyn Railway is a narrow-gauge preserved railway in Wales running for from Tywyn on the Mid-Wales coast to Nant Gwernol near the village of Abergynolwyn. The line was opened in 1866 to carry slate from the quarries at Bryn Eglwys to Tywyn, and was the first narrow gauge railway in Britain...

 over a distance of 14 miles (22.5 km). The event has featured both in local and national media, including the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

's Countryfile

Countryfile

Countryfile is a British magazine-style television programme produced by BBC Birmingham, first aired on 24th July 1988, which reports on rural and environmental issues within the United Kingdom. For its first 20 years it was fronted by broadcaster John Craven, until he stepped back from the role of...

 programme.

History

The event was the idea of local dentist, Godfrey Worsey, and was first run in 1984 with around 48 runners. The following year, this had increased to 250 runners. In 2008, there were 822 runners in the main race; the winner completing the course in just over 1 hour 18 minutes, a course record.The time beat the previous record, set in 2005:

Route

The full race of 14 miles (22.5 km) is from Tywyn to Abergynolwyn and back. The course is mostly over public footpaths and local privately owned farmland, with the permission of the landowners, though the first and last sections are on public roads. Although only the elite runners stay ahead of the train for the full distance, the train stops in various locations to take on water, pass other trains or to run round at Abergynolwyn, allowing other runners to overtake.

Additionally, there are shorter races in the morning, as follows:

• Quarry Challenge - 6.2 miles (10 km) from Quarry Siding Halt to Tywyn.
• Dolgoch Challenge - 5.5 miles (8.9 km) from to Tywyn.
• Tynllwynhen Challenge - 3.5 miles (5.6 km) from Tynllwynhen Halt to Tywyn.
• Toddlers trot for children round the perimeter of the race field.

Event under threat

In March 2009, it was announced that the August race may be the last, unless more volunteers can be found to help organise the event. Due to a strong response from the local community, these fears have been allayed and it was announced in the 2009 Race Programme, that the event's future was secured for a number of years.

External links

• Talyllyn Railway website
• Race the Train website