Emsworth-Basingstoke Charity Relay 2005

An appeal! If you are a member of a club between the Portsmouth/Emsworth/Chichester area and Basingstoke, I urge you to do the Charity Relay. This year there were only 7 teams, 3 of which were my club Victory AC. It should be more popular. It's great!

This is a fun race, the main point being to raise money for a designated charity, this year The Brittle Bone Society. The race is run from Emsworth on the south coast to Basingstoke in north Hampshire, along public footpaths, mostly The Hangers Way. Teams are of 6 people, each person running 4 legs of between 2 and 4 miles each. Everybody runs the first leg. The countryside is stunning, apart from 4 bits of urban running, which only account for 4 of the 18 legs. The urban bits are: Havant, Petersfield, Alton, Basingstoke. I did the legs through Petersfield, Alton and Basingstoke! Are my team mates trying to tell me something? Have I missed too many cross country events? At least I did get some countryside running. The steep uphill section through a head high field of rape was a particular joy! Are my team mates trying to tell me something?

Meet the Victory AC teams:

We fielded a men's team, a women's team, and a mixed team (5 men plus Sara).
After the en-masse first leg, Ruth carried on through Havant, loving every stride:

2 change-overs later, Amanda took on the challenge of the Queen Elizabeth Country Park to Buriton. At least the last bit was downhill:

Later at Petersfield, the urban specialist(!) takes over:

I then have to hand over to Marilyn at Steep (appropriate name!), but where is she? "She's in the bushes" come the replies. "MARILYN!!!!":

Our driver Malcolm, athlete in training:

Marilyn had to take on the Shoulder of Mutton Hill, a hill so steep you can touch the ground in front of you as you "run" up it. It's tricky to even walk up it! Here's Marilyn having survived the ordeal:

Later Gill runs into picturesque Selborne:

And nearing the end, Annabelle has the look of relief that her work is all done, while Gill avoids my prying lens:


It's a fantastic day out. At 6 hours of running, you get all the good bits of ultra running (there are good bits to ultra running!) without the pain - less than 10 miles of running each, broken down in nice manageable, if intense, chunks.

I have one gripe though, about the tactics of another team. We were neck and neck with one of the other men's teams and it was becoming quite a race. As we waited at Alton they suggested taking a short cut to avoid the hill into Alton. I suggested this wasn't in the spirit of the race, but their reply was that they only had 2 proper runners and the rest were fun runners - their main aim was to raise money for the charity. I think we persuaded them that they should follow the prescribed route.

I set off ahead of their runner, but he soon overtook me, going at quite a pace. I lost him, but soon came upon another of their team whom I overtook heading uphill out of Alton. After a downhill section he caught me up again as we reached the field of rape. However, he didn't follow me into the field. Then I noticed another of their team ahead of me in the crop. What was going on? I nearly caught him, but he disappeared again. I ran to the changeover, asking about the guy ahead of me, but got puzzled looks: I was ahead of them. A short while later their baton arrived but I wasn't sure who was carrying it.

I later established they were running 3 runners for each leg, each doing only about 1 mile. This was because they were only 'fun runners'. So were we not doing it for fun? They said that they always finished last and made sure they didn't get an advantage from this method, waiting if they got ahead. It kind of takes the competition element out of it though! In any case, they didn't actually finish last. We beat them, but there was a men's team who got hopelessly lost and finished well behind them.

So that explained the multiple runners, but what route was their baton taking? There's no way the guy behind me could have got the baton to the guy ahead of me. I think the baton went by road to the changeover. I know their point was to have fun and raise money, but surely that was taking things a bit too far? It would have been nice to be able to race them on equal terms!

OK, I'll get off my soap box. I had a great time. I urge you all to do this event!