Where is it?
Salcey Forest is a Forestry Commission site with a cafe and toilets near Northampton. Use the post code NN7 2HX for Sat Navs.
You do have to pay to park (we’ve negotiated a special offer of £3.50 for the evening! We’ll send emails out to entrants to make this happen). That said, be a hero and car share, save money and the world!
It is 18 minutes from Northampton and 9 minutes from Junction 15 of the M1. The closest train station is Northampton
If you want to see what the venue is like watch the venue preview here.
Won’t it be dark?
We hope so! You need a head or chest to torch to run in this event. No torch no run.
Our friends from Petzl will be with us so you can test out the best head torches around on the night. If you’ve got a cheap headtorch from Amazon, you’ll be able to tell the difference immediately. We’ll have more to announce on this closer to the event.
Who are Petzl?
Petzl are the industry leader in high quality head torches. We’re very lucky to be hosting some of their “Night Trails” events. We’ve got 1 at Cannock Chase Forest and 2 at Salcey Forest this winter.
There is a reason the top ultra runners in the world use their head torches, when you need the trail lit up they are simply the best. When trail running at night you want to make sure youyr head torch wont let you down and your Petzl wont.
They’ll be at the event with their demo kit for you to try on before, during or after the event.
Can I run with my dog?
We’ve had canicross at these events for a number of years and it’s great fun!
We start the canicross runners off 10 minutes before the main field. It will be a “mass start” and the dogs can get quite excited! If you think your dog may react badly to this either start at the back of the field or consider if this is the style of event you and your dog will enjoy. We’re all about putting events on for everyone but obviously for some dogs it may be overstimulating and harm the experience for others, and for them. Please read our general canicross rules here.
If in doubt please do not enter, there are numerous other canicross events that have a time trial event if you worry your dog will be reactive or aggressive in such situation.
Please make sure you enter the Canicross race when you click on the enter button above.
Course description
Ground conditions will depend very much on the weather closer to the event. It is fundamentally on crushed stone however with tree detritus the ground can become a bit slippy and mucky. The route is fully marked and essentially a 2 lap course. Salcey Forest is fundamentally flat - but any sort of uphill on a 10k feels like a mountain!
What does it cost?
We operate a tiered pricing approach. The earlier you enter, the cheaper the event but never ever will you pay a booking fee!
Before 24/02/2026 £16
After 24/02/2026 £21
Unaffiliated entrants pay £2 extra. Why not join your local running club or sign up the Big Bear Brigade and save 10% off entries for ever!
Do I have to raise money or run for charity?
No… BUT!
We have a great partnership with Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity. They provide specialist nurses and support for seriously ill children. There are currently over 150 Roald Dahl Nurses caring for more than 36,000 seriously ill children.
During the sign up process you can opt to set up a Just Giving page to raise money for Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity or to make a small donation alongside your entry fee - 100% of that goes straight to the charity to help with their amazing work.
We want to help them towards making sure every seriously ill child has a Roald Dahl nurse.
If you want to find out a little more about our partnership click here.
How far is the race?
10k! This might seem a bit pointless to mention given the name but this is different to a normal Big Bear Event. You'll get the same love, a medal and some goodies but you can't run all night!
I’ve heard you do cupless events?
Yes, but not for this event. Unlike our other events we will have some biodegradable cups with water/electrolyte available on the course and we will have hot drinks available before and after too. If you have a foldable cup you can bring, even better but we don't insist on it for our short races.
Has the event been run before?
Yes! We’ve won multiple Racecheck Gold Awards for these events and have over 150 reviews scoring us at 4.8 out of 5! Check out the reviews here
I’m not that fussed by a medal…
In that case our partnership with Earth Runs will be perfect! Rather than give you a medal you don’t really want (and to help reduce waste) we’ll give you a Big Bear Tree Token. Not only will a tree be planted for each token given out but the token is also full of wildflower seeds for you to grow at home!
