Every second counts as Harriers win Cotswold Relay

A glorious midsummer's day greeted the runners at the annual Cotswold Relay; a 103 mile, 10 leg race from Chipping Campden in the north, to Bath Abbey in the south. The Harriers had not entered a team for several years, but building on the recent success of the ladies team, it was decided to enter an elite "Mixed" team into the competition to see how they would fare! And the verdict? They fared very well indeed, with a closely fought victory over Gloucester AC for the mixed team prize and a finish of 4th overall out of 74 teams!

A 5.30 departure from Bristol to ensure Matt Ellis was ready and able to run the 1st Leg of 19.3km from Chipping Campden to Stanway House, didn't seem to adversely affect either him or his partners in crime - John Terry and Debbie Marsden - as all ran excellently! Matt finished 6th in his Leg in a time of 1:24:46, before John managed a 7th place on Leg 2 (between Stanway House and Cleeve Common) in a time of 1:30:40 - not bad considering it was already about 24c and this leg included 473m of climb! Onto leg 3 - between Cleeve Common and Seven Sisters - and the first of our mighty ladies, Debbie Marsden, who ran a great leg finishing 7th overall, and 1st lady in a time of 1:04:53, winning the club's 1st bottle of champagne! Up next was Chris Palmer, who was unfazed by leg 4 (Seven Springs to Cranham Corner) - which includes Cooper's Hill (made famous by the sport of cheese rolling) - as he raced around, finishing in 4th place in a time of 1:28:47, just over a minute behind the winner GWRs David Miller.

By this stage the Harriers had opened up a 15 minute lead over their nearest rivals Gloucester AC and everything was looking rosy. Well everything except the temperature which had now risen to 28c and was really beginning to affect the runners! Our next man, was Colin Johnson - who had intentionally walked his route on an earlier recce so that the landmarks would appear quicker on the day when he ran it! They certainly appeared quickly enough, as he devoured the route between Cranham Corner and Ebley Mill in a time of 1:24:38 for just under 19km! Next up was youngster Dan Studley, whose race prep had included 4 weeks of A level revision, and a failed attempt to drive round the route before realising that it was predominately off-road! Unfortunately this, combined with the full heat of the midday sun, meant that Dan found the leg a struggle, finishing 28th in a time of 1:24:05. This now made it interesting, as Gloucester AC with a 1:13:32, pulled back to within 4 minutes of the Harriers!

Onto Leg 7 and Ewan Kilgour, a late replacement for the injured Sophie Voller, put in a magnificent display, finishing 5th in a time of 55 minutes exactly and within two seconds of the Gloucester AC runner, thus maintaining our precious lead! Leg 8 next, another toughy, from Wooton-u-Edge to Old Sodbury and an old hand at this one, Anthony Glover, bravely took up the challenge. The heat again proved taxing as the final 4 miles of a near 13 mile leg, were a combination of walk, crawl and climb for all of the runners. Fortunately the sharp down hill finish meant the crowd were treating to the spectacle of a great sprint finish between Anthony and Matt Atkins of Stroud - with Anthony nearly closing him down to finish 12th in 1:35:30. Unfortunately for the Harriers, Gloucester ACs Wayne Mayer finished 2nd in a time of 1:29:07, to put Gloucester ahead for the first time, by some 2.5 minutes.

The Harriers had much to be confident about though, as our final two runners were Robyn Golding and Emma D'Alton. First up on Leg 9 (Old Sodbury to Cold Ashton) was Robyn, who despite talking so much on the way over lost over voice, ran like a lady possessed to finish 3rd overall in a time of 1:07:48 and would've been 2nd, had she not taken a wrong turn with just over a mile of the leg left. Meanwhile Gloucester AC were hot on her heels, finishing just 4 seconds behind her. The final leg from Cold Ashton to Bath Abbey saw Emma D'Alton running for the Harriers. Although it was late afternoon, the temperature was still roasting and many of the runners looked like they were suffering as they ran down the Bath shopping mall. Winner of this leg was Team Bath's Allister Sheffield in just over an hour, and before you knew it, there was Emma, 7th overall and again 1st lady in a time of 1:14:40 - some 5 minutes clear of the Gloucester AC runner!

The team headed over to the rugby club at the Rec and nervously awaited the results. After what seemed like forever Charlie came out for one final appearance in his Mardi Gras hat and announced the winners. The Harriers had done it by just over 2 minutes! Our winning time of 13:10:47 just ahead of Gloucester's 13:13:12.

Great effort everybody!

Full results are here.