The Waseley Wobbler trail race is held every September, starting and finishing at Waseley Hills High School. It is around 8.5 miles in length, and includes total ascent of well over 1000 feet or 300 metres.
This year (2025) it took place on Sunday 21st September, in good weather. I was marshalling for the third time, having also run the race myself three times previously. The event is organised by my athletics club, Bromsgrove & Redditch. Given that I benefit from the work of so many club volunteers as an athlete, it’s good to make a contribution of my own.
The route is mostly around the Waseley Hills Country Park, and the edge of the Lickey Hills. Last time I ran the race, in 2017, I recorded it in full with my GoPro:
Some of the paths can be very muddy, and this year was no exception, despite the weather being sunny on the day. Also as it’s a rural area, you sometimes have to be cautious around cows in fields.
For a more detailed discussion of the race, see this great article from 2023 by Andy Pye, a local trail running specialist: Unravelling The Waseley Wobbler: a trail runner’s tale.
Towards the end of the article he referred to the lack of participants in this and other local races. I see that in 2023 there were only 59 participants, as compared with 81 when I first ran it in 2012. Luckily, by this year the numbers were back up to 80 again, as you can see from the results.
I think the race could still be better advertised though. A dog walker actually came up to me while we were setting up, and asked where to find out about the race for next year, as she’d thought of doing it but not come across it online. I had to say google, as there isn’t a fixed web page from year to year.
I’ll maybe suggest to the club secretary that they find more local media pages to share links to. Of course, many runners are going to take some persuading… given the rather extreme nature of the terrain compared to the average road run!
Chris Gibbs Fitness 
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