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Ups & Downs
Wednesday 10th June 2015
Ups & Downs
Despite being in its 29th year, the South Downs Way Relay, held on Saturday 8th June, proved to be its usual gruelling but absolutely amazing, fun filled day!
Teams of 6 run a total of eighteen demanding, hilly legs to cover the 100 miles of the South Downs Way between Beachy Head and Winchester. Four teams, along with their drivers, flew the flag for Phoenix. A record number of 67 teams ran this year. With start times staggered depending on predicted times, results are split into different race categories.
Vets report
The Vets were confident they could run a fast relay this year, and their predicted time would have had them win fairly comfortably in most of the last years. The main aim was to go and execute the plan.
The strong team consisted of Donald Maclellan, Tom Sanderson, Jon Pike, Matt Greenall, Dave Carter & Dave Powell . A huge thanks to John Marinko who drove.
Donald Maclellan gave us an early lead on the difficult Seven Sisters Leg 1, and from then on Basingstoke, Lewes and Phoenix swopped around the top 3 places, with very strong runs on Leg 4 (Dave Powell), Leg 5 (Dave Carter) and Leg 7 (Donald again) putting us into second. However from this point on, Lewes and Basingstoke found an extra gear and had a very entertaining race which Lewes finally won clocking in the low 10:50s. Although we realised the medals were getting out of our reach, our team continued to run very well, finishing in 11:07 a ten minute club vets record over this longer version of the relay course, three minutes quicker than our most optimistic estimate for the day. We also broke 7 club leg records - three for Dave Powell and two each for Dave Carter and Matt Greenall. Dave Carter's 55:17 on Leg 17 took three minutes off the previous vets best and may stand for some time unless he has another go in 2016.
Women's report
Despite the very early set off (leaving Withdean at 4.45am) the sole Phoenix Women's team had a spritely start with Erica Martin taking second place in the first leg. Erica stayed true to form all day, completing the most miles for the team (19.4miles).
Lizzy Miles kept up the lead in leg 2 finishing some 4 minutes ahead of her predicted time. It is definitely worth mentioning Lizzy ran her final leg (leg 13) 6 minutes faster than predicted.
In leg 3 Caz Garrat, in her second ever relay, stormed in first place. Caz beat her predicted times in her next 2 legs.
We were over taken by 2 very quick men's teams in leg 4 but Deb Friis kept us first in the women's race. She kept up the pace in legs 10 & 16. If memory serves me right, Debs ran her first relay 10years ago.
In Leg 5, ran by Kathryn Harnett, we were over taken by the Arena 80 Women's team, despite Kathryn running 2:15 over her predicted time.
We were still in the medals following leg 6 ran by Liz Halliday, Team Captain extraordinaire, in 2 minutes over her predicted time. Unfortunately we were unable to hold onto this as the day progressed. Liz won the unofficial award for being closest to her predicted times over all the legs, so she does win the prize of being captain of the Women's team next year. Congratulations, Liz!
The final team member was Hildi Mitchell who's navigational skills, time keeping & expert driving need to go on her CV!
Senior Teams
A Team:
Driver: Ro Harrington
Runners: James Miles; Tobias Bremer; Jose Luceron; Alex Bonzi; Paul Lawrence; Ray Matthews.
The Senior As were lucky to field a team as a late injury led to a search for a last minute replacement; thanks to Ray for stepped up the evening before ensuring the team were able to run.
B Team:
Driver: Sue Hudson
Runners: Malcolm Kemp; Jon Wright; Phil Grabsky; Andrew Neighbour; Colin Simpson; Paul Whelpton
The Senior Bs were left with a desperate last minute search for an experienced driver when their driver was rendered unable to drive. A massive thank you to Sue Hudson for stepping in & warm wishes to their original driver.
