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South Downs Way Relay - Not Really!

Friday 12th June 2020

Deprived of the opportunity to take part in this Year’s South Downs Way Relay – cancelled of course because of COVID-19  like so many other events – we decided to mark the first Saturday in June with our own virtual version.

To comply with social distancing restrictions organisers Liz Halliday and Erica Martin selected half of the  traditional Relay legs and split them in two, with individual runners racing  half a leg out and back, so as to start and finish at the same point. And to introduce an element of competition we were split into two teams Phit Phoenix and Phab Phoenix (not sure whose doubtful sense of humour was to blame for that).

Despite horrendous wind and rain everyone enjoyed themselves, and shared their recorded times plus highlights/lowlights of their runs via whatsapp. Without the opportunity for the normal advance route reccies there were one or two mishaps, notably Georgia narrowly avoiding setting off in the opposite direction to what was required, and Rachel’s various wrong turns revealing that her navigational skills are not quite on the same stratospheric level as her running.

Many thanks to organisers Liz and Erica and all 34 helpers/participants for their efforts to keep us running, racing and smiling in these difficult times. Oh, and the result: in the end the Phits total time of around 14 hours saw them nick it by a mere nine minutes or so from the Phabs, so good work by the seeders!