OxBelt Relay 2025
Oxbelt Relay Race Report
Last Sunday the White Horse Harriers took part in the Oxbelt Relay, an eight-legged 65 mile relay race following a circular route around Oxford. Under the leadership of our Captains Lucie and Pete, back again by popular demand, we entered two teams, (mostly ladies and mostly gentlemen) in a total field of eighteen teams.
The start was in two waves, with the B teams going off at 8:30 and the A teams at 9:00, meaning that the position on the road didn’t always reflect the overall race order. Last year Oxford City were the class of the field, and they led the race from start to finish putting in six minute miles all the way round. This year they didn’t have things all their own way, with Headington A in the lead for the first few legs. Tim led off for our gentlemen against the elite openers, and kept us nicely placed in the middle of the pack up to Cumnor. Ed crushed the second leg, thrashing both the Oxford City and Headington A runners to record the third fastest time on leg 2. Bizarrely, halfway through the third leg the heavens suddenly opened and within minutes torrential rain was sheeting down. Belting rain is normally a dead giveaway that Simon J is out running, and sure enough he was in his element flying through the storm to win leg 3 outright and close right up on the pack of teams that had started half an hour earlier. With a quarter of the race done we were in fifth place, and moving up the table nicely.
For the ladies Jo opened the batting with a very tidy run, keeping us well-placed in the bunch. The ever-dependable John maintained our position after leg 2, before Clare battled through the rain on leg 3 to Gosford, bringing us up to tenth place and closing the gap on the teams ahead as they faltered in the storm.
And then we came to the fourth leg, where the race was turned upside-down. The rain had changed the dusty fields that were recce-ed a couple of days ago into claggy strength-sapping mud. This is the ugly part of the course; the furthest-away Siberian gulag stage, where the poor benighted forgotten runners are banished to struggle through the mud and nettles. We needed a hardened veteran campaigner used to making light of harsh conditions, and as luck would have it our ladies team had the very best up next: Simon L. He bulldozed through the field (and the thigh-high thistles) overtaking four teams and dragging our gentlemen’s runner by the scruff of the neck along with him. Our two Harriers were second and third fastest on this leg, putting the gentlemen into third place by a few seconds ahead of Thame A, and establishing the ladies in the upper half of the overall leaderboard. Oxford City won this leg by eight minutes over 12km, putting them into first place.
Into the second half of the race now, and with the sun back out Chris took over for the gentlemen. Fresh from a brave attack in the Summer Handicap he delivered a vicious onslaught through leg 5, and was the second Harrier of the day to win his leg outright. He handed over to Burt and then Joel who combined to despatch with ease the hard grind of the two legs round the bottom corner of the course to Abingdon lock, where Kerry and her crew were stalking around the checkpoint like a falcon ready to strike. The herculean efforts over the last three legs had kept Thame A at bay, and now it would all come down to our closer on the final leg.
Headington A put in a big assault on leg 7, winning the leg ten minutes faster than Oxford City and putting them within touching distance of the lead. But it wasn’t to be – Oxford City had enough on the last leg up the river to Radley to win the overall race by three minutes ahead of Headington A. Many congratulations to them; worthy champions. A crowd was gathering at the finish now as the third team out on the road, Thame A, came home at 3:26pm. But, crucially, they had started at 8:30am, half-an-hour earlier than our gentlemen. If Kerry could make it to Radley by 3:56pm the bronze medal would belong to the White Horse Harriers. With ten minutes to go we were all staring down the road from the finish, looking for a flash of green shirt; we knew she was close, but how close? Where was Kerry? With nine minutes to go it was too tense to sit down. With eight minutes to go….but suddenly there she was, flashing around the corner and accelerating home, with the crowd roaring as she secured third place in the overall race for the White Horse Harriers gentlemen. She did it. Another fantastic run to round off an excellent team performance.
This was pretty exciting (to say the least) but the drama of the ladies team was yet to come. In the back half of the race we had Vicky, Joanne and Cristina, the indefatigable iron-willed heart of the Ridgeway Relay team. Strong running here dropped Witney B, and brought us to the last leg in a group of six teams separated by only a few minutes. This was the race-within-the-race: who out of the six could show the strength and courage over the final leg to win the B race?
Up stepped Matilda, the youngest Harrier in the team, ready to bravely shoulder the burden. Simon L paced her through Abingdon out to the river, and waved her on when he could go no further. Eynsham were the first to flounder, leaving a group of five together. At the halfway point Pete reported that Matilda was looking strong, running with her customary easy style, eating up the kilometres, focussed on the route ahead. But so did the other runners; there were no weaklings here, and whoever won would have earned it the hard way. With three km to go out of eighty, as the path lead away from the river up the Radley College boathouse drive, Matilda made her move and advanced to the front of group. Woodstock couldn’t stay with her, and dropped back. Up at the finish the crowd was getting louder and louder as we realised what was unfolding out on the course. At the last tick of the trackers it was still too close to call, with the last four runners together. After 7 hours of racing all day it would all be settled by the rush down the last hundred yards. The crowd roared again as the runners came round the corner and sprinted for the line. And there, in the centre, hair flowing and arms pumping, was Matilda. She kicked, kicked again, and moved clear. The other three runners looked on despairingly as the gap widened yard by yard, and Matilda flew across the line to win.
After a whole day of racing our ladies finished eighth overall by ten seconds from Proof Social, Abbey A, Abbey B and Woodstock, with Eynsham and Headington B a few minutes further back. They were the first ladies team and the first B team. Scenes of joy, hugs and huge beaming smiles amongst the harrier supporters in the crowd. It was a wonderful end to a fabulous day of hard racing, camaraderie and great results. Thanks so much to everyone for putting so much in, and to our Captains for making it all possible.
Words: Kevin Sinclair