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Hear the words “trail race in West Yorkshire,” and thoughts of mud-streaked runners traipsing across the moors may come to mind.
But at the launch of the inaugural Halifax Urban Trail this Easter weekend the phrase will take on a whole new meaning as runners swap paths for pavements and stiles for staircases while racing through the town’s historic buildings.
The race director, Andrew Bibby, dreamed up the idea after taking part in a similar event in the Breton town of Fougères while on holiday with running friends.
“The town was en fête, basically, everyone was in the streets; it was a really good atmosphere,” he said. “There’s a thousand-year-old chateau there, and we ran round the ramparts … we ran into the civic theatre, we ran into, I am not sure whether it was a secondary school or a college, up to the first floor, through the classrooms.
“[We ran] through a church, and there was the organ playing, and then we ended up going through a disused railway tunnel.”
“It was memorable, really, and it was a good event,” he added. “So afterwards, I was chatting to a friend saying: ‘You know, Halifax has got some rather good buildings, maybe we could do something similar like this in Halifax.”
On Easter Monday, about 18 months after he first floated the idea, 500 runners will be dashing through Halifax buildings on a 10km route that includes the minster, market, town hall, Dean Clough art gallery and the town’s iconic Piece Hall.
It is, the organisers believe, the first race of its kind in the UK. While urban trail runs are popular in France, in Britain a trail race typically involves some combination of fells, fields and mud.
Kay Pierce, 80, has signed up for the event. She has been running since her 30s and has taken part in many races, but never one like this.
When she heard about the run, she said, she thought: “What a crazy, great idea.” “I’m running with a couple of friends, and we’re just going to have an enjoyable morning,” she said.
When Bibby went to the owners and managers of the buildings with his idea, perhaps to his surprise, every single one he asked said yes.
Nicky Chance-Tompson, the chief executive of the Piece Hall, said: “When we were first approached about the Halifax Urban Trail, we loved the idea straight away. The Piece Hall has always been about celebrating the heritage, creativity and community spirit that make Halifax such a special place.
“Being part of something that encourages people to explore the town and see it a little differently felt like a really natural fit for us.”
The Rev Canon Hilary Barber, vicar of Halifax, said: “We are delighted to be part of all the iconic venues on this new trail. It’s a real honour to be part of celebrating the town in this innovative way.
“We do an awful lot to welcome the community in, to remind the community that it’s a Christian place of worship but it belongs to everybody of all faiths and none, and this is one more of many ways of showing that we mean that, and we want people to feel that it is their minster, and it belongs to the town.”
While many entrants are relatively local, from Leeds and elsewhere in West Yorkshire, some are coming from farther afield, including Cardiff and Somerset.
“When we were first talking about it, obviously we wanted it to be a really good experience for the runners,” Bibby said, “but also we wanted to show off what Halifax has got, because I think a lot of people, particularly outside Yorkshire and the north, would think Halifax is just an industrial town.
“It’s a town which is really attractive, it’s got some fantastic architecture,” he said. “And I just think people will be surprised, I think even local people who know the town would be quite surprised.
“People will be going to places they probably have never been to, even locals. So that’s part of it, but also to get a bit of good publicity for the town, bring people to the town, put money into the local economy.
“It’d be really nice if we had people from the south, to show off what we’ve got.”
