The annual Ridgeway Relay, organised by Marlborough Running Club, took place this weekend and Vale entered a team as usual. Although the run is a long one starting at Ivinghoe Beacon, following the official National Ridgeway Trail to its conclusion in Marlborough, it is regarded as a great race to take part in and one which the runners enjoy. The 89 mile course is covered by a team of 10 in legs of between 5.4 and 11 miles.
It is a few years now since we won the event, and hopes were high for this to be our year. Our team consisted of Anuradha Cooray, Sophie Delderfield, Paul Gregory, Debbie Channer, Adam Bowller, Sean Wilson, James Davis, Rob Taylor, Dave Maisey and Declan Hamblin a group with ages ranging from 18 to 59!
Over such a long distance Clubs tactics vary; some put their fastest runners at the beginning, others at the end. Our team’s performance was magnificent especially as it was not at full strength. One of our support group reports that Paul Gregory ran a brilliant leg especially as he has been injured for some time, in fact his last competitive race was in this event last year; Rob Taylor was also in excellent form as has been recovering from knee problems and Adam Bowller was first class. Thanks to Debbie Channer was unwell but still ran, and it was good to see Declan Hamblin recovered from injury and competing again. Happiest runner was Sophie Delderfieled when she discovered that cows had been removed from the field she had to run across!
Each one of our athletes gave their all and our position changed throughout the race but at the end of stage 8 we had taken the lead. Unfortunately Headington had saved two strong runners for their last legs and Vale therefore finished in 2nd place overall despite strong runs from Dave and Declan at the end. The winning team crossed the line in 9 hours 38 minutes and 30 seconds; and after 89 miles, Vale were just five and a half minutes behind with a time of 9:44:01, almost 15 minutes ahead of the team in 3rd place.