News

01/06/2022

2022 Race Entries

Entries for the 2022 Sodbury Slog will open on Friday 1st July. As last year, the race entry process will be conducted via an online ballot system via Race Nation. The ballot will open at 08:00 on Friday 1st July and will close at 23:55 on Sunday 17th July. The draw will be made on Tuesday 19th July and all 1000 successful applicants will be notified by email the same day.

Those drawn and offered a place in the event will have until 23:55 on Sunday 31st July to complete and pay for their entry. After this deadline any applicants who have not completed their entry will lose their automatic right to an entry to the race.

As in previous years the race capacity will remain at 1300 runners. Basic maths will tell you that 300 places are therefore allocated outside of this ballot system. These places are allocated to our charity partners, our sponsors, and a number of local running clubs. Our charity partner, Jessie May, will also again be given a number of guaranteed entries for the race. For details on running for this great cause, please contact Jessie May directly. Their contact details can be found on our partner page here.

Also as previous years race number transfers will be available online up until four weeks before the event. Runners should only register once for the ballot and any suspected duplicate entries will be removed. Mass abuse of the ballot will result in elimination from the ballot. As per our terms and conditions, no refunds will be given, and no deferrals can be offered.

26/05/2022

New Event Lead Sponsor

Planning is now well underway for the 2022 edition of the Sodbury Slog. We have a few small changes that we will be announcing over the coming weeks, but for the large part the event remains the same great mud-fest you have become accustomed to over the years. As ever the Sodbury Slog can only take place thanks to a huge team of selfless volunteers – both in advance and on the day – and our incredible commercial sponsors who provide invaluable support across a range of services to help make this event happen, and allow us to continue to support good causes, both in the local area and further afield.

For 2022 we are extremely excited to announce a new local lead sponsor for the Sodbury Slog, Charles Saunders Foodservice. After a team of employees took part in the 2021 event, we were approached by Charles Saunders with an offer of supporting the event, and following discussions are pleased to have them on-board as a lead sponsor for this year.

Based in Yate Charles Saunders are a major local employer and one of the largest and longest established independent foodservice companies in the South West. They offer a consistent and reliable service from order through to delivery and offer an extensive range to suit every type of food business and budget. They also support local producers and with so many fantastic products on their doorstep, they use local suppliers wherever possible to give you the freshest and best quality ingredients.

28/07/2021

We’re Back Baby!

Oh yeah baby, it’s true – we are back! The mud is back, the flapjacks are back, even the bugler is back. We. Are. Back.

After much planning, some crying, and even more hair-pulling, we have decided that we are finally good to go for 2021. While life is not yet fully back to normal, there is nothing currently stopping us from holding this year’s event as close to normal as possible. So, brace yourself for a firehose of information.

Because we are already much later in the year than we would normally be we do have to do things slightly differently, and we also have a reduced window of time to work within. We know you all understand that, but if we want a race (and we all do) this is how we have to do it.

This is the core information that you need to know right now:

  • The race will be on Sunday 14th November.
  • Entries will be via a ballot system, that will open on Monday 2nd August at 08:00.
  • The ballot system will only be open for registrations for one week.
  • If you are randomly selected you will only get seven days to take up the offer of the place.
  • T-shirts are optional this year and will need to be ordered separately from our online store that will also open on Monday 2nd August (details to follow)
  • We have guaranteed entries through our charity partners, Cystic Fibrosis Trust and Jessie May (details to follow).

More specific details on the ballot entry system can be found on our Ballot Entry Details page. Please read it very carefully.

We will release more information over the coming days, but right now get your keyboards ready to go, call up your friends, shout at your family (in a nice excited kind of way), and holler from the rooftops. Sodbury Slog Entries are opening – VERY SOON

08/11/2020

A Race Day Like No Other

For as many years as I can remember I’ve found myself stood in the car park of Chipping Sodbury Sports Centre on Remembrance Sunday as the clock struck 11. I’ve always found the silence of one-thousand plus people bowing their heads in remembrance to be deafening, beautiful, and incredibly moving. This Remembrance Sunday that same car park will be silent once again, but it’s a different kind of silence this year, because none of us are there.

Back in the spring, as the coronavirus pandemic that has shaped so much of our lives this year seemed like just another virus that would pass, we deliberated hard on how best to plan for this year to ensure we didn’t take anyone’s money without knowing we could hold the event, or be able to return it if we couldn’t. Every angle and timeline we laid out in front of us was a difficult choice, with the ultimate choice being to not hold an event at all. Eventually that was the decision we took, and while at the time it was a hard call to make, it’s clear to see this morning that it was the right one.

Not since the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak of 2001 have the streets and muddy fields of Chipping Sodbury been so quiet on this special day. It would have been a very wet and muddy one this year for sure. With all the rain we’ve had over the autumn and even the rain today, there would be plenty of mud to go around. But that mud isn’t going anywhere, and it’ll all still be waiting next year, when we hope we will be ready to fill the car park with silence once again.

As we move into 2021 we will start to plan for the next race, the next time we will see each other in the mud of South Gloucestershire, and the next time we can smile as we dance with Terry the Tornado. Until then, stay safe.

When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today.

Ira Rainey
Race Director
30/06/2020

2020 Event Cancellation

The Sodbury Slog 2020 – Event Cancellation
30th June 2020

After closely monitoring the ongoing situation surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak and the guidance issued by the Government, we have today taken the difficult decision to cancel this year’s Sodbury Slog.

Despite the reduction in the rate of infections and easing of the national lockdown, it is still not clear when restrictions on mass gatherings of people for sporting events will be lifted, enabling running events such as ours to take place. Because of this uncertainty we have decided, with only four months until the event, it is simply not possible for us to confidently push forward with the race this year.

With around 1100 runners taking part and over 100 volunteers enabling them to do so, we consider the safety of all our competitors, supporters, partners, and volunteers paramount. Without the clarity of being able to host an event safely we will not put them at risk.

Organised by Bitton Road Runners, the Sodbury Slog is an extremely popular and long-standing event in the South West running calendar. With 2020 being our 30th anniversary year, we have worked hard on plans to celebrate this, so we appreciate how disappointing this will be for a great many runners, but we are also sure everyone will understand why this decision has been made.

As much as a great muddy trawl through the South Gloucestershire countryside, the Sodbury Slog has always had the local community and charity at heart and has raised tens of thousands of pounds for good causes over the years. It is a heritage we fully intend to continue when we return, hopefully in November 2021.

Ira Rainey
Race Director
26/05/2020

COVID-19 Update

As we continue to move through the year and the circumstances around COVID-19 restrictions slowly begin to change, we are continuing to monitor both government guidance and the unfolding situation with other running events scheduled to take place towards the end of the year.

While some of our freedoms are starting to return, it is important to understand that there is a big difference between meeting family and friends for outdoor exercise with social distancing in place, and gathering over 1000 people together for a race, even if it is through the wide-open space of the South Gloucestershire countryside.

At this point in time there has still been no clear statement, or proposed plan published, that covers safely resuming mass gatherings of people, such as we would need to enable the Sodbury Slog to take place. Because of this we are still not in a position to confidently open entries for this year’s event.
 
As the weeks pass we move ever closer to the reality that we may not actually get the required clarity within the timeframe we need to effectively organise a safe event for everyone. This takes us to the point that we may need to take the hard decision that we have no choice but to cancel the Sodbury Slog for this year. But we are not there yet.
 
As an organising committee we are still talking often, and are planning to meet again at the end of June to reassess the situation, with all information we have available to us at that point, when we will make a final decision whether we will be able to host the event this year. So please keep watching our usual channels for more information, and please continue to stay safe.
29/04/2020

COVID-19 Update

As the global COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold and as yet with no clarity around either lifting of the lockdown or the staging of sporting events involving mass gatherings of people, we wanted to update you on what we are doing behind the scenes for this year’s Sodbury Slog.

As we have said previously, while we want nothing more than to give you all something to look forward to in November, we absolutely don’t want to take any money from you without certainty that the event will go ahead this year. To do that we need clear guidance from the UK government, Sodbury Council, and the ARC (our affiliated governing body) that the race will actually be able to take place safely in November. Right now that information simply isn’t available, which is why we are holding off on making any further decisions regarding this year’s event.

It is fair to say that at this point any event that does take place this year will very likely be different to the event we had planned, and that we have already talked about. But we’re sure you’ll agree that any Slog will be better than no Slog. Which is why we are still considering all possibilities and remain committed to getting you back knee-deep in the South Gloucestershire mud as soon as we can.

As an organising committee we are still talking often, continuing to read all news and guidance around sporting events, and meeting regularly to discuss the situation and the options available to us as time moves on. So please keep watching our usual channels for more information, and please stay home and stay safe.

17/03/2020

Entry Ballot Update

With the uncertainty of the coming months due to Coronavirus Covid-19, we have taken the decision to delay opening the ballot until the ongoing situation becomes clearer.

Just like any sizeable event, as we move towards the actual date we become more financially committed and it makes it impossible for us to be able to refund entry fees without losing money. The Sodbury Slog is not a large scale commercial event, and most of our profit is donated to local charities. This is why our terms and conditions state that we do not offer refunds. Put simply, we want to ensure that before we take any of your hard-earned cash, we are as confident as we can be that we will be able to safely host the event you pay to enter. 

To be clear, there are currently no plans for postponing or cancelling this year’s event. We hope that by November we will all be in a very different place, but we are acutely aware that this unprecedented disruption, to even our day-to-day lives, means that everybody is (quite rightly) focusing on the short term.

Rest assured that a huge amount of planning has already gone into the event for this year and work will continue behind the scenes ready for our 30th anniversary and the usual Remembrance Day mudfest.

Please keep an eye on this website and our social media channels for further updates in coming weeks as we know more about how things are unfolding. Stay safe, keep positive, and look out for each other.

04/03/2020

All hail the bling

Everybody likes a bit of bling. Which is why this year – for the first time ever – to celebrate our 30th anniversary we are going to be handing out amazing Sodbury Slog medals to all finishers.

But this isn’t going to be instead of a t-shirt, it’s as well as. Wait what? What’s the catch I hear you say? No catch, and more importantly, there will be no price increase from last year.

That’s right, for the same low fee of £23 for affiliated runners, and £25 for those unaffiliated, not only will you get to run undoubtedly the best multi-terrain race in the South West, but also swagger home with a shiny special edition Slog medal big enough to fill the palm of your hand, and an even more special long-sleeve technical t-shirt with a retro-inspired design

If you’re lucky you will also get to take home a couple of sock-fulls of South Gloucestershire mud. You can never say we don’t give you value for money.

02/03/2020

Planting for the future

One of the things that makes the Sodbury Slog such a great event is the opportunity for 1300 runners to take in some of the most glorious countryside in and around Chipping Sodbury, as the route runs across farmland, over commons, and through woodland. Inspired by this wonderful rural landscape,  in this our 30th anniversary year, we have decided to give something back to the local area, help offset our environmental footprint, and also create a lasting legacy for the event.

We are very excited to announce that with proceeds from the 2020 event, Bitton Road Runners and the Sodbury Slog will be supporting and working with local woodland charity The Forest of Avon Trust, and planting 300 trees – 10 for each year of the race – in the South Gloucestershire area.

The trust is an independent local charity passionate about the benefits of trees and woodlands, and is committed to delivering these to people across Bristol and Avon. Funded solely by sponsorship, donations, and grants, they organise projects and activities bringing the benefits of trees to people and deliver a more sustainable future.

Please do check out out more about the trust and the range of great work they do by visiting their website and social media channels.

Website: https://forestofavontrust.org/

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