South Downs Relay Report.

The South Downs Relay – 96 miles scenic views of downland and coast through East and West Sussex and Hampshire, all in a day's running!

24th July started off with low cloud over the South Downs and the prospect of a bit of rain – a welcome relief to the heat wave that finished just the day before. The Relay 96 miles is split into 18 legs for 6 runners, that's 3 legs each and a total of about 15 to 20 miles.

Emily started us off at Beachy Head at 7.30 in the morning with a 6 miler to Exceat, the rest of the day was a bit of a blur. Young Ellie Philips did us proud with an excellent 39 min 5 miler to Ditching Beacon, followed by Colin who took the baton for a further 39 min 5 miler, Mark Reed (of Serpentine 100k fame) hardly broke into a sweat with a total of 18.5 miles and come the afternoon Harriet had a welcoming committee at Houghton Lane to finish her leg and further friends and family at Hill Barn.

It was also great to see so much support from many Milers at the Hill Barn changeover. Also support from our local rival clubs who were not running this year, including Bob (Haslemere Border AC) at Springhead Hill and Tom (Liss Runners) at Sustainability Centre.

Most of us thought we could have shaved a few minutes off our times, that third run of the day late pm is always a tough one (how steep is that run up Beacon Hill, Harting Down!?), but we ended up a creditable 18th out of 33 in the Cooper Cup and were just pipped to the post by 2 mins into 6th place out of 9 in the Mixed Category by Haywards Heath Harriers.

Total time for a very gruelling 96 miles was 13 hours 42 minutes! What great day out!