Moonlight Track
On Saturday 22 November 2025, the Moonlight Track took place which is a six-hour endurance challenge utilising the 400m running track at York University. Having been postponed in November and January 2025 due to a freezing and waterlogged track respectively, the event finally took place on a damp cool day.
The race starts at midday to allow anyone wanting to run in the dark with a headtorch the opportunity to do so.
The idea of running for 6 hours on a track sounds horrific and boring, but surprisingly it is not, and there are a number of advantages from never being more than 400 metres from the feeding station, end of the next lap, or even finish if you want to call it a day. Also, when you are running in good company and everyone is supporting each other, the time can pass surprisingly quickly. Although running on an entirely flat surface, turning in just one direction is a bit of a mental challenge.
For Matlock Athletic Club, four runners made the start line. Keeping up her fine form was Lisa Walton who completed the half marathon (53 laps), in a time of 2:14:58, which was a new PB. This was even more impressive given that Lisa had run a course PB at Black Rocks Parkrun just 3 hours earlier. Dan Ashcroft and Jack Cummins both took on the marathon (106 laps) finishing in times of 3:51:59 and 4:04:14 respectively. Unfortunately, Dennis Belbin had to call it a day with a painful hip and leg after lap 45, having completed 18km.
Rather than run any more laps of the track, with their headtorches in the dark, all four MACs went to the nearby Charles XII pub for a well-earned meal and refreshments.
