REPORT BY NARNI FULFORD
Roundhay Half Marathon at Leeds Running Festival, 17th August 2025
A beautiful day for a trail half, if I do say so myself. The drive to West Yorkshire really wasn’t a bad one, and there was parking a-plenty for those early birds who rocked up more than an hour prior to the start. A 10km and 5km offering was also being held by the lovely team at ‘RunThrough’, but the HM was due to set off at 9am and the 5/10 options an hour later. Sly thinking from the race organisers if ever I saw it; a good plan as any to try and ease congestion around the park.
One slightly harrowing visit to a portaloo later and we were off fairly promptly at 9.01 am. The course was undulating, with an absolutely brilliant swoosh down to the bottom of a delightful cricket pitch, followed by a slightly less brilliant hike up back to the top again, A nice tootle round the main entrance and then another frankly magnificent stretch down to the bottom of the lake, which was absolutely stuffed full of swans – bravo. There were various statues and stone pavilions dotted around the park, and with the dappled sunlight filtering through the trees who whole course really was very picturesque. A curl around the bottom of the lake (a segment I found out later was aptly named ‘Dam Busters’ and I spotted the lone course photographer. ‘Fantastic’ I thought to myself. I know where he is for the next 3 laps. On we shuttled into the woods (lots of nice carvings to be had here), and a particularly nasty crawl back up to the start. Lots of huffing and puffing and internal thoughts of ‘whose idea was this anyway’ ensued. I chose to deploy the patented heel click for the photographer on lap two, and as I ran past I shouted ‘did you get it?’, he assured me he had. Dear reader, he lied. Heartbroken.
Coming down the penultimate downhill on the final lap disaster struck, and a sharp pain behind the left kneecap forced me to pull up fairly sharply. I walked to the bottom of the hill and tested if out on the flat, discovering happily that it was still runnable. If I could walk the final downhill section and then run on the flat and the incline, I’d make it back to the end no problems. Onwards! Some more huffing and puffing past what I was now terming ‘those stupid wood carvings’ in the final hilly trail push, and I agreed to a final 30 second sprint with a lovely chap for the last 200 metres. (In hindsight I think this ‘agreement’ was me looking at him and saying “let’s fucking have it then” before sprinting off like a twat. He did pat me on the back after the finish line and laugh though, so all’s well that ends well).
If you love a pretty park, don’t mind venturing into West Yorkshire, and are okay with a lapped race, then RunThrough’s Leeds Running Festival is for you.
