Two teams of Wells Harriers competed hard at the 103 mile long Cotswold Way relay on Saturday (June 29th). This was the 19th year for Wells teams at this popular event, attracting a mix of old hands and enthusiastic newcomers, which paid dividends for performance.
The Harrier’s Women’s team finished a strong 6th out of 13 in the women’s rankings, and in overall 49th place, out of 79 competing teams, with a collective time of 16 hours 38 minutes; whilst the men’s team finished 5th in the senior men’s positions and in 10th place overall with their nippy time of 13 hours 59 minutes.
Early risers on leg 1 were Steve Masters and Helen Rutter who added another handicap by starting some 2 or 3 minutes behind the rest of the field, arriving in Chipping Campden at 7.00am to see the runners disappear off up the High Street. Steve relished the ‘chasing the hare’ approach and described the motivation of catching younger and younger runners as he went through the pack. After 19kms & 342m of ascent he’d caught everyone bar the leading 4 for an excellent time just short of 87minutes. Helen came in with the cut-off time of 2hrs 2 minutes in 66th position, having passed a few confused stragglers. Winner was former Olympian and Commonwealth games bronze medallist for the marathon, Dan Robinson of Stroud AC.
The same distance, but hillier leg 2, saw Oli Frost run Stanway House to Cleeve Common with 525m of ascent in a time of 1.38 for 20th place on the leg. Laura Darby Jones had an equally good run with 1.48 being good for 7th woman home in 36th place overall. From Cleeve Common to Seven Springs, on the shorter leg 3, Mike Brown and Elly Milln ran consistently to finish in 1.13 and 1.17 respectively for 29th and 44th over 13.2km and 327m of ascent.
Leg 4 from Seven Springs, as with legs 2 and 8, is a tough leg, and naturally we had two of the Club’s stronger endurance athletes out. The Club’s most improved athlete of 2012/13, Paul Maskell, a sub-3 hour marathon at London this year and Clare Prosser, the recipient of the Club’s 2012/13 marathon award for her 3.02 at London last year, were very evenly matched. Paul came home in 6th place in a time of 1.31 with Clare less than a minute behind in overall 10th place, 2nd woman on the leg. The leg is just over 20km and includes the infamous climb up Coopers Hill, the cheese-rolling hill.
Leg 5 started at Cranham Corner and finished at Ebley Mill over a distance of almost 19km. Liz Green finished in 1.56 for 59th place overall with Dan Humphries having a storming run for 15th place in 1.28. Liz has run every single leg of the 10-stage relay for us and with Helen was part of the winning women’s team on three occasions in this relay back in the 1990’s.
Leg 6 saw our most experienced Cotswolds relay runner, Paul Chadwick running for the men whilst the women’s team had Jo Tibbiats running for the very first time. They finished very close together in 29th and 30th places with less than a minute separating them in 1.21 and 1.22 for the 14km, with 409m ascent, run to Dursley. Jo was 6th amongst the women finishers. For leg 7 we had two novices running together with Jack Bancroft going for glory a little too early and getting a little off-track before finishing in 6th place overall, with Kim Collins an excellent 35th, 8th woman home. The distance of this leg, whilst short at 11.2km and 292m of climb, means that the race is as frantic as they get.
Leg 8 from Wootton-under- Edge to Old Sodbury saw a late replacement for the injured Mike Rusca in the form of Simon Carr. The women’s team member Lucy Heath withdrew after falling ill on her way up to compete. Simon ran well in the heat of the day and managed a solid 1.55 clocking for 46th place ably supported by Mike along the way. Leg 9 saw Pete Wright and Jane Whittaker rise again to the challenge of this relay and they covered the distance from Old Sodbury to Cold Ashton over just short of 15km in 1.21 and 1.37, 30th and 64th respectively.
The glory leg was left to one of the Harrier’s former leg winners, Andrew Deamer, to again take top billing for the Club when he finished in 3rd place overall for the downhill run from Cold Ashton to the doors of Bath Abbey, covering the 15km distance in 66 minutes. Katerina Prior also had a good run for 42nd place, 11th woman on the same leg in 1.24, and the two of them were cheered in with rest of the finishers by the assembled crowd. Harriers interested in being part of this relay team next year should let Helen or Paul know as soon as possible so we can start our usual planning. If sufficient interest we will enter three teams in 2014, for another good day out on the hills.
Further local Fell races coming up include the Charmouth Challenge this coming Saturday July 6th; and the Crook Peak cake Race on Wednesday August 21st, from Cross, near Axbridge. (see calendar for details as usual). For those who are intrepid enough Paul & Helen will also once again be going across to the Isle of Wight for the Southern Fell Running Championships on the weekend of September 14th & 15th - 3 races in 2 days. Please let them know asap if you want to know more about the discounted ferry fairs and accommodation options.More information here: http://www.rydeharriers.co.uk/