Thank you for this report on our teams great day out at the South Downs Relay from Steve Apsey….
A very hot an hilly day on the south downs!
Last Friday the South Downs Relay team travelled down to Eastbourne. A night in the premier Inn (we arrived at 10pm) followed by an early get up for our start time of 7am. This is an invitation only event and we are the only club on the island able to enter. There is a massive waiting list to try to get in. Steve Hickman got us invited many years ago and we have entered every year since. For those that don’t know it’s a race run along the south downs way (100 miles) in teams of 6. Each runner has to do 3 non consecutive legs, totalling around 16 miles of running throughout the day per person.
As one of the team runs the rest then need to rush to the next changeover, making driving the relay almost as tough as running it! There is a strictly enforced 14 hour cut off and whoever gets the baton across the route quickest wins. This year’s team were Tom Forster, Jon Bye, Nick Kenney, Matt Fletcher, Richard Bezer and Steve Apsey. Supported by super chauffeur Ian Dyer and clipboard queen Zoe Elliott.
Jon Bye led us off tackling the first leg of the Seven Sisters, a real toughy to get us going. Teams need to average quicker than 8min/miles to make the cutoff so every second counts. With most legs involving considerable climb of up to 1000 feet it’s really important to give your all on every leg. The first half went really well with the team on track for 13 hours. As the day drew on and the heat built and legs got tired it was hard to maintain the pace. But the team did an amazing job with everyone stepping up and putting in the performance. On his last leg up Butser Hill Richard even found the time to help a fellow competitor who took a tumble in front of him. At the finish we did our 100 miles in 13 hours and 24 minutes. 15 minutes quicker than last year’s time. This put us 18th out of the 25 ‘A’ Teams entered. The winning team was Brighton who came in under 10 hours!
If anyone wants to be part of the team next year look out for the Facebook post around January next year or speak to Steve Apsey at a club night.
