Vet Hares (Victorious) in Cotswold Way Relay - see update next week
- brian17harris
- Jul 6
- 6 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Men’s Captain Aaron Willis organised this year's entry of two club teams – Veteran Hares and Racing Hares (mixed category). Our thanks go to Aaron for organising and to the running friends of the club he lined up to fill a few gaps.
After the hottest day of the year apparently on Tuesday, the runners taking on this year’s trail relay on Saturday 5th July would have been relieved with less sun and distinctly milder temperatures. The event is capped at around 100 teams overall due to the parking logistics at various start points, with Open, Vet, Mixed and Ladies categories.
Final results, including split times for each leg, will not be available until later next week, so we’ll give a shout out then for any individual performances.
However, headline news is that our vets (over-40) team look to have won their category, coming in 7th overall, notwithstanding some last-minute substitutions, including the absence of Formidable (Rob) Forbes through injury.
Our mixed team finished provisionally 4th, despite unfortunately missing one runner on the day (the leg cut-off time plus 15 minutes is allocated by default for DNF).
Congratulations to both teams.
Thanks are also due to Liza & Recently Retired Rupert for fulfilling the club’s essential marshalling requirements (with help from Richard Edwards). Liza commented
“We certainly needed three of us to get people safely across the complicated crossroads at the top of Frocester Hill, with cars (lots of them) coming in all directions.
All runners were fine and appreciative! We were struck by the massive range of standard/running ability. No wonder we do so well because we manage - thanks to Aaron’s work - to field really strong teams - in marked contrast to some other clubs! It was fun and we were happy to help. Well done on the two GREAT performances. “
There were some great start-line photos this year of our pairs of runners
VETERAN HARES
1. Aaron Willis
2. Rob Brown
3. Karen Higuera
4. Sam Hartfield
5. James White
6. Dave Musgrove
7. Andy Hindson
8. Tim Francis
9. Ian Barrett
10. Phil Davey
Well used to running before most of us have woken up, Aaron Willis was ideally suited to the early start of the first leg at Chipping Campden, and gave the team a flying start.
"I felt pretty good from the off, but after not much training took it a little easier on the first climb. Had a friendly battle with 4th and on the second climb pulled away from him. Finished strong and comfortably in 3rd. Great leg.”
Guest runner Sam Hartfield on leg 4 praised the organising and marshalling and thought the road works made the crossing at Birdlip easier than it would normally have been.
Dave Musgrave on leg 6 wins the award for shortest non-zero Strava comment
“ooh my back” ;-)).
Andy Hindson on leg 7 – “The climb out of Dursley doesn’t get an easier! Not sure climbing training in Lakes and Scotland helped today”
Tim Francis on leg 8 says he'd never taken part in the Cotswold Relay before -
“To be honest I did it because of the amount of work Aaron puts in. Alex Banks and I had done Old County Tops in May and I had enjoyed a break from training since then, so I was pleasantly surprised that I felt strong when I ran and wasn’t going to let the team down too much! It was great to be part of a team in a sport that's normally solo and a great atmosphere.”
Ian Barrett kindly offered a few reflections on his leg 9
“Nervous for my longest run for a while as I've been nursing some hip pain. Took it steady, lots of stop start with the gates made it hard to keep the pace up. And couldn't stretch out on the easier terrain as much as I would have liked. But plenty of energy for the tough climbs at the end, happy enough to get around mostly in one piece!”
{Ed. - I ran leg 9 last year, and recall having to partly walk the tough hill through the woods towards the end – see Tash’s comment below.}
RACING HARES
1. Simon Campbell
2. Jonathan Jaimeson
3. Clare Stickney
4. [DNF]
5. Storm Trow
6. Brecht Grieten
7. Annie Campbell
8. Alex Banks
9. Tash Pauck
10. Paul Timms
Aaron’s powers of persuasion saw Simon Campbell gamely switch from his planned later leg to the early first slot, logging possibly his longest run of the year.
Clare Stickney on leg 3 enjoyed the scenery despite the hills, but wasn’t hanging around judging by a strava segment top 10 in Lineover Wood.
On leg 5 new member Storm Trow was representing the club for the first time - not the easiest debut, but hopefully the first of many.
Tash Pauck on leg 9 bravely tackled the “stuff of nightmares” hill that your editor failed to run continuously in 3 attempts last year. The one Ian ‘machine’ Barrett motored on up!
5 July 2025, Cotswold Way Relay, Chipping Campden to Bath, 10 stages, 103 miles trail
Individual stage results to follow when published …
Team results (unofficial):
1 Stroud AC 11.40.46
7 Cirencester AC - Veteran Hares 14.29.43 – 1st veteran team
21 Cirencester AC - Racing Hares 15.31.41 – 4th mixed team (inc. minimum four ladies)
99 teams closed in. www.cotswoldwayrelay.co.uk
**************************ROAD RACING********************************
Elsewhere, on Sunday Dave Bell ran Evesham 10k for something like the 8th time. The race was raising funds for a great sport-related charity https://www.cassandfriends.org/
Dave was pretty pleased to finish 7th in 34:41, as it's not the quickest course with a couple of sections on trail. He was also only 2s slower than last year.
6 July 2025, Evesham Town 10km, road
1 Andy Lawrence (Stratford AC) 32.33 (chip 32.32)7 David Bell (Cirencester AC) 34.41 (34.41)401 finished
***************************PARKRUNS*************************************
After last week’s 400+ field, no doubt swollen by the club’s anniversary (ok, maybe it was Jos Buttler drawing the crowds), there were still 300 finishers this weekend. With speedy teenager Ben Clarke elsewhere, it was Rich Allen’s turn to win for Cirencester, which he did in style with a back-to-back PB {although this was just the appetiser before the man course 18miles endurance run in preparation for his Ironman later this summer}. Surely just a matter of time before he goes sub-18 minutes officially (already there on Strava)
Congratulations also to the following who set new PB’s at Cirencester
· Ruaridh Wright – over a minute faster than his first parkrun in May.
· Jonathan Higgs – a course PB and his best since 2019
· Ann Sherrington – a course PB and her best age-graded parkrun
Steve Hale tried out the Stonehouse course for the first time and must have liked it as he ran his best ever UK parkrun, finishing 22nd and just 3 seconds outside his PB set during his Antipodean adventure earlier this year. Great progress Steve.
Over in Australia, Jo Musk visiting her brother managed to fit in a parkrun and was relieved to run faster than rapidly improving son Brecon’s time last weekend {Ed. - much easier than a full Run Crew session with Sophie? }. Being a hardy brit, Jo ran in the club's lightweight aero vest, despite it being winter in Sydney, with the locals mostly in tshirts or more.
5 July 2025, parkruns, 5km trail
Cirencester AC finishers:Cirencester: 1 Rich Allen 18.05 PB, 34 Ruaridh Wright (J) PB 22.49, 66 Rob Tuttle 24.33,75 Jo Roberts 24.58, 85 Jonathan Higgs 25.32, 101 Susanna Austin 26.13,133 Rachel McAdam 27.55, 136 Bill Leggate 28.08, 140 Ann Sherrington 28.15,152 Jocelyn Randall 28.59, 161 Gordon Jones 29.13, 163 Amanda Naylor 29.18,178 Alan McAdam 30.01, 195 Samantha Timms 30.59, 228 Ruth Fulford 33.58, 300 finished.
Stonehouse: 22 Stephen Hale 24.16, 70 finished.
Witney: 243 Phil Davey 32.58, 356 finished.
Upton Court, Slough: 22 Martin Croucher 21.40, 250 finished.
Centennial Park, Sydney, Australia: 74 Jo Musk 22.15, 385 finished
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