The past week (ish) has been an exciting time for all of here at Bridgwater And District Road And Trail (BADRAT) runners; so much to share!
Last Wednesday, the 10th June, a handful of BADRAT club and leadership members met up in North Petherton at the bottom of Old Road to finally trial our concept – an inclusive run club welcoming local people and embracing local running.
Bjorn, Clair and Nick S met with Kerry and Lesley to take a run through some of the back paths of North Petherton, through some beautiful hidden fields and tracks and then up Dancing Hill (and my, don’t we all love hills!) to the turn off through the muddy fields down into Kings Cliff Woods.
Kings Cliff has become a natural local focus point for BADRAT runners, providing us with a mix of muddy trails, well worn paths, hills and flats, stunning trees and bubbling streams winding through the undergrowth. We are privileged to have it on our doorstep for our ‘Bridgwater South’ runs and we look forward to showing our members more of the amazing routes through and around Kings Cliff.
Our run took us through the woods and along to the ‘bottom carpark’ and then across the fields again back into North Petherton on High Street. We ran, we chatted, we explored and ended with smiles on faces and an excitement to get running as a club with members so we could share the joy of great runs in good company….socially distanced for now, of course.
We didn’t have to wait long.
Having opened up our membership pre-order over the weekend, the 17th June saw BADRAT meeting for our first run opened up to broad (and new!) membership. It didn’t disappoint. 12 members turned out despite the rain and thunder during the day to run as BADRATs, separated out into two groups of 6 so we could stick by the rules of these odd times.
We ran through the North Petherton backroads and up to Kings Cliff woods via the ‘bottom carpark’, then th
rough the woods’ central track to cover a circuit of a route that ended with a challenging run up to the ‘top carpark’ of the woods and then down Cliff Road back to North Petherton.
Thanks to our amazing new members Kathryn, Vikki, Stacey, Leeanne, Helen and Jake, as well as BADRAT leads Nick P, Bjorn, Kerry, Paul and Nick S. It was great to have a chance to chat to our new members as we went around and to find out more about the type of running you do, the running you enjoy and what runs you want to see us doing in future.
So, what next?
We’ll be running again soon! We have plans for next week and look forward to offering opportunities to join us all for more BADRAT fun. We’ll be posting details soon, so watch this (assuming ‘this’ is Facebook’s BAD RAT page) space….
Membership pre-order is still open, so come and take advantage of the pre-order discount and get involved!
Keep on running. BADRAT isn’t just about club runs, it’s about all your runs and more. Keep on tagging us in your runs, sharing them on our Strava club page, Facebook page, Facebook group and Instagram – we all want to be able to send you kudos, ‘likes’ and virtual support and encouragement!