Aims

Dorset trail marathon Cranborne Chase runners

‘The Chase’ Trail Run Team Aims to:
  1. Create an industry leading family trail festival in the heart of rural Dorset.
  2. Inspire as many people as possible to take part in physical activity, lowering levels of inactivity and improving the health of the community.
  3. Build a sustainable platform to raise money and awareness of national/local good causes.
  4. Use the ‘The Chase’ Trail Run as a platform to help as many people, organisations and businesses as possible.
  5. Operate with transparency, high moral standards and clear communication
  6. Support, promote and respect the St Giles House Estate at all times.
  7. Raise awareness of looking after the environment.
Background

‘The Chase’ Trail Run (formally The UK Trail Running Festival) was born from the challenging COVID pandemic situation in 2020 with the sister event, New Forest Marathon temporarily being located at the stunning St Giles House. After delivering one of the UK’s first major running events post lockdown, the feedback for the event and location was amazing, and so the UK Trail Running Festival was born, and has since continued to grow to become ‘The Chase’ Trail Run.

The main routes start and finish from the Race Village, built in front of the famous St Giles House, with a 1k tree-lined avenue Start/Finish straight for all to enjoy.

The routes wind through the heart of the the St Giles House Estate, creating a sublime mixture of some of the most scenic running experiences in the country. With a combination of surfaces including compacted gravel, trail, farm tracks, grass and small areas of tarmac; and with far reaching views of the best rural Dorset has to offer; it’s a truly amazing experience.

‘The Chase’ Trail Run comes from a fantastic pedigree with its sister event being the award-winning New Forest Marathon so you can be sure you’ll have an amazing time with us.

Additional features of the event include a welcoming family friendly atmosphere with a combination of trade stands, local entertainment, on site car parking and camping, as well as a range of events that will appeal to runners of all ages and abilities:

Marathon 

Half Marathon 

10k

5k

Junior Mile 

Junior 200m 

Our aim to lower levels of obesity and inactivity in the local community

Inactivity and obesity are now recognised as the 4th biggest killer in the UK costing £27 billion and causing 37,000 deaths every year. It is estimated that 62% of the adult population of Hampshire is overweight and obese. ‘The Chase’ Trail Run Team are committed to lowering this statistic in two ways:

  1. We are committed to producing an inspiring flagship sporting event, with a range of distance options and recognised professional support, to get as many people active as possible. This is why we have introduced 5k and 10k races as well as the half and full marathon. The great thing with running events is that each athlete has a purposeful aim for their training which can start up to a year in advance. We aim to produce a pathway from couch to full marathon to engage all levels and ages on a supported progressive route to better health.
  2. We have linked the event with The New Forest Marathon Community Fund: a registered charity which has been established to raise money for local good causes across the local area. For further information please visit the fundraising section of the site.

We are passionate about launching this new event to the festival and running calendar and continue to help support the local community throughout the year. This is a model that is becoming increasingly rare to find and something that differentiates us from other marathons and sporting events. Using ‘The Chase’ Trail Run as a platform to raise activity levels and to help as many businesses, people and organisations as possible is an honour, we would love you to be part of this journey.