Saxon Shore Relay – Race Report –

Pete and Oli go running (part 2)

 

 

The Saxon shore relay is a race from Folkestone to Whitstable, normally in teams of 4/5 members. Each leg can vary in distance from 1.5 to 3.5 miles. Fancy dress is strongly recommended, their are no marshals, no event arrows telling you where to go. It’s fully self navigating and the route description has been written in reverse then flipped to add to the chaos. If all of that wasn’t hard enough Pete and I decided to do the whole thing chained together on 2hrs sleep!

So I find myself standing on the start line overlooking the Channel Tunnel at 5am, chained to Pete Gough.

 

The idea is to make this hard, so we are more prepared for our next challenge which is in August.

 

I usually do this in a relay team but have challenged my old team to catch us after giving us a 3hr head start. In previous years the team has been made up of me and some people that can run a bit, however this year they consist of TRACs own Scott Haggarty, 3 borderline alcoholic sailing mates of mine and the former saxophonist from madness as their chauffeur!

 

The run itself was quite eventful and I am aware how long this report is already so will just give a brief overview of the high/low lights. 

 

 Start at 5.30am, no one there apart from us and Pete’s long suffering better half to wave us off.

 

The first 15 or so miles were stunning, sun out running along the cliff path towards Dover, Deal and Sandwich. Once we hit Deal I was all ready struggling and said I was going to quit. Pete being Pete wouldn’t let me and by now we had forty mph winds and rain.

 

 

We carried on to Sandwich dodging the old stray golf ball as we crossed through Royal St George’s golf course. It’s fair to say the early golfers we saw were less than excited to see us.

I mentioned quitting again but Pete still wasn’t listening. 

 

Next it was through Sandwich, then cross country to Plucks Gutter, Grove Ferry and Reculver. 

We stopped at Plucks Gutter for refreshments in the pub. After this for some reason our decision making went slightly wrong and we got a little lost on a few occasions. 

Nothing too bad just a bit annoying.

More refreshments (Budweiser) from Sharon at Grove Ferry. 

 

Then another pit stop at Reculver with Anna supplying chocolates and coke (another beer would have been better but I am not one to complain), by now my ex-team had overtaken us and were on the way to the pub in Whitstable. 

 

We hobbled along the prom from Herne bay with me feeling refreshed and Pete struggling!!!

 

We finished at the Hotel Continental in Whitstable in a total time of 12hrs 11 minutes.

We grabbed a lift to the rugby club to meet up with the other teams for a well earned beer and a meal.

 

Overall results 

Winning team – 5 and a half hrs.

My old team – 7 and half ish hrs.

Us – 12hrs 11 mins.

One of the other relay teams of 5 took over ten hrs. 

 

Well TRAC members are made of sturdy stuff !!! Well done Oli and Pete, Incredible!!