News
VR4 6 Leg SDW Relay Results
(June 21, 2020).Results and commentary
Wow! What a weekend for Harriers. It’s over, the last Tortoise is out of the hay and the running is done.
I hope participants enjoyed it as much as we organisers did. The support for each other speaks volumes for the club and makes organising something like this all the more worthwhile. Thank you for taking part and embracing the spirit. We hope some of you will now be emboldened to sign up for the race proper when it is allowed to run again. However, this has seemed so much fun we may be tempted to do it again...
We seeded runners into teams to be of roughly equal ability (Grumpies aside). Pretty well everyone and all teams beat expectations (which says more about your “racing guts” than our seeding competence). However to get 6 teams of mixed ability within 17 minutes of each other across 4 hrs plus is +/-3.5% and is pretty good from our perspective.
A big shout out to the team Captains - it made our lives and communications much more streamlined..oh and the cake-makers.
Apologies for the often poor grammar, typos and appalling wit shown on the website – it comes from reading Private Eye or listening to Rob Watts...
Please let us have any feedback – either on chat or privately.
Our Organiser in Chief Martin sends the following message to you all:
I couldn’t be more delighted with how this event has turned out. Your sense of fun and adventure, the way you’ve supported each other, how much you’ve taken to the landscape and big skies of the Downs - it’s all been beyond everything I’d hoped for. When the first photos started to come through on the recce weekend I thought yup, we’ve got this one right.
I was writing an email to Mark and Marion during the first 10k race weekend and almost mid sentence came up with the idea of the event - and suddenly with their support it became a reality. I’ll own up to have been really nervous about anyone getting injured in some way and I’ve made a few deliberately behind the scenes comments via the captains which may have filtered through to you. I enjoyed bringing the instructions together and the driving tour of the route to get the start and finish lines. My most memorable moment that afternoon (apart from excellent checking and challenging from the co-conspirators) was in meeting someone at the end of Leg 8 who asked me what I was doing. I was of course cutting down some thistles to lay across the path to signify the finish line for the event - but they didn’t show up on the photo.
Tim did a fab job in divvying up the teams - and from of the “I want this to be a low tech event” mantra Marky Mark has created huge drama right out of the hat.
An event which you’ve run truly in the spirit of the SDWR and the very best of the club’s ethos. Thank you to everyone for enjoying it and appreciating it so much”
As to the Results? Well MBB held off a late challenge from the Tortoises by just over 3 minutes with the Rockets just 40s further back. What we learned on Sunday was that if team Michael Burke had run solo...he wouldn’t have been last!
Please note team delta to "target time" uses the runners' targets "to the second" not rounded figures.
Team Age Graded results.
Treat these with a large pinch of salt! Unlike the SDWR “Cooper Cup”, we assessed each runner against the leg they ran. We Interpolated both the age-factor and the “open class” record for the distance (gender specific). We made no allowance for terrain / elevation change and simply used Road race data. This means your % will be lower than a usual race, and lower even more if you had significant climb in your leg. We took the “harmonic mean” of runners’ % scores to get the team “score”, but did not weight according to distance/time.
So FWIW, the Hind legs took the prize, probably down to the exploits of firstly our own "legend", and secondly the real "mountain goat".
Any disputes can only be conducted “at the bar” and not on Whatsapp! [And since I have the only bar in HH that’s open – it’s not going to happen].
Many thanks from Martin, Mark, Marion & Tim/
14:00 Sunday. Goats and Grumpies complete their legs as Liz (not out) Earley and Gemma Morgan take on legs 3 & 4. Gemma (Harriers own answer to Andy Holden - google his obit.) did well to avoid the temptations of the Abergavenny arms on leg 4 (it's shut btw) and is all set for long haul in Brighton.
The overall leaderboard stays unchanged with MBB still in pole. A Tortoise is reported still asleep in his hay - if he awakes in time the threat to MBB remains; and we are all wondering about the last (Hind) Leg
12:00 Sunday. Legs still to be completed by 4 teams. MBB are the leaders in the clubhouse in spite of a near superhuman effort from Ben Gibson on leg 8 for the Rockets. The Tortoises look well placed after a particularly zippy run from James Collins overnight on leg 5.
20:00 Saturday Breaking News...Chris Smith Scorches leg 8 in probably a new club best time sub 40mins. Gibson hypersonic missile locked and loaded for tomorrow...LB&C wrap things up for a relaxing Sunday as Phil P burns a trail on the YBR.
14:50 in the afternoon on Saturday and 31/42 legs completed and all teams still ahead of target. 4 teams now finished 5/6 legs but they all have different legs to complete - as these differ hugely in length overall time is no guide to who is in pole. Best look at delta to target where MBB remain a nose in front but less than 4 mins covers the top 3 on this measure. Couple of validations completed in the last hour - thanks for your patience.
We await the battle royal between Smith & Gibson on leg 8. And the remaining Tortoises cming out of hibernation.