Mile Segments

You must evidence that you have completed a mile in the time needed for a Standard by recording a Strava activity on a designated route where a Squirrels Strava Segment exists. These segments will initially be introduced and run on club nights from early spring. Thereafter members can attempt them on their own to improve times. There are three locations:

1. Great Central Way, Leicester
2. Stemborough Lane, Leire
3. Pingles stadium (track), Nuneaton

The Strava widgets on this page show the fastest times for everyone in the world who has run them. However, you can also see fastest times for just Squirrel's members by clicking the button to open it in Strava, and then using the filters to show just Squirrel's Running Group members. 

Ideally, the mile you run will match against one of the Strava segments listed below - but it is possible it might not for various reasons. Providing your recorded activity shows you running in one of these locations, and is a mile in distance, we encourage you to not worry about it showing in the Strava segment and submit a link to the activity and the "Best Efforts" information (more guidance below under the Pingles section).

1. Great Central Way

This can be run in either direction, North or South. Please start and end several steps either side of the start and end points to ensure Strava matches it to the segment.

• The Southbound segment starts by the steps to the canal towpath and ends at the junction with the path to Everard's Meadows.
• The Northbound segment starts at the junction with the path to Everard's Meadows and ends at the start of the bridge over Middleton Street.

2. Stemborough Lane, Leire

3. Pingles Stadium (track)

A mile can be evidenced here in several ways:

• Using the "Squirrels Mile - Track" Strava segment. You can start at the start point (pictured below) and complete four laps (and an extra 10 metres to ensure it is a mile - 1609 meters). If you are doing this you must start recording a new activity otherwise Strava will include any warmup laps and your "fast" laps will not match the segment. You must also try to run in lane 1 as much as possible to ensure Strava matches it to the segment, and to ensure the distance is accurate.
• Alternatively, you can start at any point on the track in any lane (but we suggest the start point pictured is best) and run a mile measured by your watch. As with the previous option, you must start recording a new activity. This won't match to the Strava segment but the point is that you evidence the mile by the recorded activity being exactly a mile.
• A third option is to start at any point on the track in any lane (but we suggest the start point pictured is best) and run any warmup and your mile attempt(s) in the same single Strava activity. Doing this method may mean you do not show in the Strava segment leaderboard, as it may not match your activity to the segment. It can be evidenced for Standards by using the Strava "Best Efforts" view to show you the quickest mile you did during the entire recorded activity.

The start point is directly outside the cafe area and is marked by a straight line with numbers for each lane, pictured below. The "Squirrels Mile - Track" segment may not show immediately as there are lots of other segments on the track (e.g. "Pingles mile"). The easiest way to make it show in your Strava activities is to view the link for the segment (click here or the widget below) and star or favourite it. Don't worry, you can attempt the mile and do this afterwards, it will still match your activity to the segment.

Broughton Leisure Centre loop

This was the original Squirrel's Mile segment, but it is no longer accepted for Squirrel's Standards due to safety issues with traffic when crossing roads. It is a clockwise loop of Broughton Astley Leisure Centre and the School fields. It starts and ends opposite the White Horse car park.