Cleevewold race 2025
My husband and I, along with several members of our running club, recently took part in Cleevewold. Cleevewold is a hilly half marathon, organised by local club, Cheltenham and County Harriers. It is the second race on our club’s off road race series – following on from Pittville Park cross country in February. This year, my husband and I are intending to do both the road race and off road race series.
Cleevewold starts at Postlip Hall, near Winchcombe on the outskirts of Cheltenham. It then goes over and around Cleeve Hill – a hill I’m very familiar with – before heading back to Postlip Hall for the finish line.
My husband and I did a 13 mile Cleeve Hill run the previous week to train. But we only did half the elevation of the actual race! I estimated my finish time would be around 2 hours 10 minutes and actually created a playlist that was 2 hours 8 minutes. The only hilly half marathon I’ve done previously was Cheltenham Challenge in 2019, which also involved Cleeve Hill. I did that one in 2 hours 17 minutes, but I know I’m a better run now than I was then.
Cleevewold started at 10:30am, which is quite late for a race, but welcome as it was the day we changed the clocks. Parking was at Postlip Mill, which was about a 15 minute walk across fields to the start. Registration and bag drop (you just left them there unsupervised) was inside the tythe barn, which is a beautiful old building which has hardly been modernised at all. The toilets were in actual toilet block outside the tythe barn (ie not portable toilets) and there were no queues!
We, along with most other runners, decided to run in trail shoes. I’m not a big fan of trail shoes and prefer not to use them. The mud was all dry, so we would probably have been OK with road shoes. My husband and I both carried hydration vests, as did a lot of the medium and slower runners. The vest/ backpack is another thing I’m not a fan of, but it was probably the right decision on this occasion.
Some club members were talking about finishing in 3 hours and I thought surely it can’t be that bad?!
It was a sunny day, with a light breeze, so I was coated in suncream and had also remembered to put Vaseline all around my armpits, which chafe for some reason.
At just before 10:30, all the runners headed up to the start line behind the hall and at the bottom of the hill. We were warned that the first two miles were VERY hilly, but it wasn’t all as bad as that.
I lined up just behind my husband and three men from the club who I know are a bit faster than me. There were no timing chips, it was all on gun time. And we were off!
We were very briefly running on the flat. Then, before we knew it, we were climbing. I could see that one of my friends from the club was walking, then the others were walking too. I decided that I needed to always take my lead from the people around me – if they were walking, I needed to walk!
At 0.75 miles, I was already feeling exhausted.
I can remember the course in snippets, not every single bit of it. We we went around a valley and we were then running in the opposite direction to where we’d come from, but just on the other side. The path was extremely narrow, with a big drop to the side. Then we veered off to the left and were climbing (and walking) again.
I’d created a playlist especially for the race with my new favourite song at the start – Hello Heaven, Hello by Yungblud. When it started playing for the second time, I realised I’d managed to play that on repeat rather than put the playlist on. So I had to get my phone out of my vest (not easy while moving) and change my music.
At about 2.5 miles, we got to a bit which was pretty much a sheer climb. You literally had to use your hands to get up! There were four women of about my age vying for position here. I got in front of one of them and the other two got in front of me.
At 3 miles, there was a sign saying 7. I thought we would pass it on the way back. But it was actually the 3 mile marker! The 5 mile marker was a 2. After 6 miles, the signs were actually right.
At 4 miles, by the ‘pylons’ as we call them, there was water. The pylons are actually old radio masts (I think) and they’re a well known landmark which you can see from miles around. There used to be three of them, but one was removed just before Christmas for being unsafe. I stood still and drank a whole cup of water. I’d also just eaten a Blok energy sweet (not the flavour I like, so it was pretty rank). Between the water and the sweet, I’d come back to life!
I was running pretty fast on the flats and downhills and walking all the uphills. We then had a nice long, gradual downhill. It was joyful and very welcome.
I could see my husband’s silhouette in the distance the whole time. Between four and five miles, I closed the gap on him quite a bit. But then he pulled away from me again.
The next section is a blur. There were fields. It wasn’t quite as hilly. I know that between six miles and eight miles, everything seemed to speed up.
At seven miles, I overtook one of the women who’d beaten me up the very steep bit at 2.5 miles. She overtook me on the hills, then I overtook her again on the flat and the downhills. Eventually, I pulled away from her. I overtook a few men too.
From this point, we started having to go through a lot of gates and over stiles. There was one gate, thankfully with a marshal, where a horse was literally right next to it.
The course was all marked with red and white tape, mainly tied to the trees, but also on gates, poles and anywhere else you can attach tape. I did get lost briefly at one point. The marshal pointed right (there were very few marshals on the course), then there were three possible directions and I couldn’t see the tape and started to go the wrong way.
At 8.5 miles, there was more water. I drank a full cup again, but it didn’t have quite the same magical powers this time. We ran about a quarter of a mile on the road, then it was time for a really tough bit. We had a long, steep climb to Belas Knapp, an ancient burial mound. It’s a popular place to visit, but somehow I’ve never been there. Even at the end of March, there were a few visitors there. It did look interesting in the few seconds I saw it!
At about 9 miles, a lady from our club overtook me. She is 10 years older than me and an awesome runner who runs marathons nearly every week. Just as with the other lady, she beat me on the hills and I beat her on the downhills and the flat. I felt like an absolute warrior when I was going downhill. But this lady could actually run up the hills, unlike me and everyone else around me. In the end, she pulled away from me and I couldn’t catch her.
Towards the end, there was one very steep, very narrow downhill. There were sticks and stones and it was very uneven. I had to walk it briefly as it didn’t feel safe. It reminded me of when I went on particularly treacherous blue run on a skiing lesson and it briefly joined a red run at the end. Terrifying!
Although the ground was dry, the path was uneven for the whole race. It was constant decision making. Run on the uneven bit with the stones, run on the grass, run on the tractor trails? I’m pleased to say I didn’t fall, but it could have happened easily.
The last couple of miles were a lot more downhill than up, which was very welcome. I thought I had half a mile to go, but then I saw Postlip Hall and it was a final push to the finish line. There were no medals at the finish line, just a bottle of local beer.
I finished in 45th place out of 82 in 2:08:12. I was 11th female and fourth LV45 (they had 1o year age categories ie 45-54, rather than the more usual five year categories). I actually won the prize for second LV45 as the first two ladies in my category were first and second overall.
My husband was three minutes ahead of me. The winner finished in 1:30:20 (he definitely didn’t walk the hills!) and the first lady finished in 1:47:52.
The race was 2000 ft of elevation in total – the equivalent of running up Cleeve Hill twice. I mainly enjoyed Cleevewold, even though it was exhausting, and will probably be back!
