After a summer when simply keeping cool has sometimes felt like part of the challenge, thoughts can finally begin to turn towards autumn racing. And Race Harborough has something considerably cooler and darker waiting at Irchester Country Park.

Irchester Spooktacular returns on Friday 30 October with a Halloween themed 5K night race and 2K Family Fun Run through the Northamptonshire woodland. Fancy dress is encouraged and, once darkness falls, runners can expect to encounter witches, wizards, ghosts, goblins and ghouls among the marshals guiding them around the course.

The 2K gets proceedings underway at 6:00pm before the 5K starts at 7:00pm. Both use established woodland trails and tracks, with new routes created for this year's event. Much of the surface is hard packed, making either road or trail shoes suitable, but every participant will need a head torch or small handheld torch to illuminate the way.

There is an interesting history beneath those trails too. Irchester Country Park occupies around 200 acres of woodland on land once shaped by ironstone quarrying. Today its network of paths includes an Ironstone Heritage Trail, while the park's railway museum preserves another connection with its industrial past.

The evening is designed to be as much fun as race, with Halloween themed treats, a medal and free event photographs for every finisher. The 5K also has prizes for the first three male and female runners.

So while there may still be some warmth left in September, the racing calendar is beginning to change. By the end of October, summer heat will be a distant memory and runners at Irchester will have darkness, woodland trails and a few strategically positioned ghosts to contend with instead.

You can enter this year's event via the runABC race hub.

Image courtesy Race Harborough.