The Route

Of our group of four, three did the 10km route and one did the 5km route (her first ever race!) The race started in a spectacular setting, in between the Alton ‘Towers’ themselves  and the huge lake that’s positioned in the centre of the park. As with all races organised by RunThrough, there were timing pads on the floor to make sure everyone gets an accurate time, even if they start further back in the crowd.

The first couple of kilometres took place in the centre of the park and we ran past some of the biggest rollercoasters including Rita, The Wicker Man, and Smiler. It’s worth bearing in mind that this is a particularly hilly course and one of the steepest climbs was fairly early on. There were plenty of marshals positioned throughout the route to give encouragement, although all of them seemed to claim that theirs was the last big hill on the course and ‘it’s all downhill from here!’

At a few locations around the course, we came across characters that fitted in with the theming of the park. This was a brilliant touch and made the run seem like more of an event, rather than your run of the mill race. It’s certainly the first time we’ve been cheered on by the Teletubbies, who were waiting to wave us through the CBeebies land area of the park. There were other actors waiting further on in the course, playing the soundtrack from Chariots of Fire as we climbed yet another hill. We’re hoping this theming will only get bigger and better as the event grows.

The Ultimate Theme ‘Park Run’

At about the halfway point, after we ran past Nemesis, the course took us outside the main park and into the car parks. It’s at this point of the race that you realise just how many car parks there are at Alton Towers, and with a number of loop backs passing runners going in the opposite direction it was harder to keep the momentum going. The positive of running past so many empty carparks however, is realising that empty car parks equal far fewer people than your average theme park day – meaning no queues for rides!

Returning to the park for the final two kilometres was a good energy boost and there were just a few more hills left between us and the finish line. The route took us through the stone archway next to the Towers, where there was a jazz trio playing and adding to the party atmosphere. There was a nice downhill just before the finish line that helped with that final sprint, back over the timing pads and the race was complete

Alton Towers Rides – With no queue times!

Following the race, we followed the funnel to collect our medals and other post-race goodies before collecting our bags from the bag drop area. This was all very quick and well-organised, meaning we could quickly get out into the park and head for the rides! We managed to go on every ride with a maximum of five minutes waiting time, and that excitement combined with the adrenaline high of the run meant we spent the rest of the day like a pack of children on a sugar high. As the sun began to set we started to crash and decided to finally call it a day.

Run Alton Towers 2022

This was the first time the event has taken place at Alton Towers and everything went amazingly smoothly. Having said that, we’ve taken part in RunThrough events since 2017 and they have always been incredibly well organised, so we expected nothing less. Access to the entire Alton Towers theme park after the race made this more of an all-day event than a standard race.

We had an amazing time taking part in Run Alton Towers 2021, and will definitely be returning to take part again next year. If you’d like to enter too head to the Run Alton Towers website.