Ridgeway Relay 2025 Race Report

Last Sunday [22.06.25] forty Harriers set out in four teams of ten runners each to compete in the 2025 Ridgeway Relay, from Ivinghoe Beacon away to the north-east, along 86 miles of trail to Marlborough in the south-west. It was a great day all round; a chance to team up with old friends, meet new Harriers and chat to runners from other local (and not-so-local) teams, all whilst running through lovely scenery. Our Legends, Amazons and All-stars teams raced hard all day, surviving tumbles and spills, rain and sun to carry our colours home and do us all proud. They finished in 13h30m, 14h01m and 14h13m respectively – heroes one and all.

Up at the sharp end Newbury were leading all day, with a gap of half-an-hour back to the second-placed team at the halfway point. But Reading had stacked their line-up towards the end – their last three runners all averaged under six minutes per mile, and this relentless onslaught meant that within a few kilometres of the finish their last guy swept past the Newbury runner to win the overall race by two minutes after a whole day of running. The women’s race was won by Headington, who were consistently excellent all day and finished three places ahead of their male counterparts in the overall rankings.

But what of our Thoroughbreds? How did they get on? Well, now. Both last year and the year before we finished tenth in around 11h30m, so we had a target in mind. Burt got the team off to an excellent start, putting us in 9th place after the first leg. A strong attack up the hill meant that we were fourth after the second leg, Martin K ran leg 3 in his usual imperious style to bring us to stage 4, where we played our joker – Matthew. He destroyed the sprint stage, putting four minutes into the poor guy in second place over a 34 minute run. He almost literally won by a mile, and put the Thoroughbreds into third place with 40% of the race in the bag. Emily R carried us over the long stretch down to the halfway stage at the river crossing, and Joe began the assault on the western side with the ninth best run on leg 6 to bring us to start of Harriers Country at Bury Down. The organisers had changed the rules at short notice so that all the later legs had mass starts, and it was crucial that we kept ahead of those as the race unfolded. Simon J and Susy did exactly that through Sparsholt Firs and the Harriers camp to get us to leg 9 – the champions leg. Most teams put their best runners on this leg, and the standard is awe-inspiring. If you don’t have a negative RunBritain handicap don’t even think about trying to get on the podium on this leg. But in our hour of need, our own champion came forth to lead us on. Fresh from setting a galactic all-time Harriers record on Offa’s Dyke, Ed took on the best runners in the county and gave up only a few minutes, leaving us beginning the last leg in eighth place, with Headington breathing down our neck.

And so as is always the case, it came down to our final runner to hold the line. Pete took the tag from Ed and roared down from Barbury Castle, holding off the fierce challenge from Headington and overtaking Newbury B. At the finish line we were all too nervous to stand still as we stared back up to the gap in the hedge where the runners would emerge. And then, suddenly, joyously, uproariously, Pete burst through the hedge, onto the road and round the corner to bring the White Horse Harriers Thoroughbreds team home in seventh place in 11h12m. Wonderful scenes.

Thanks so much to everyone who took part: the ever-present stalwarts, the cake-bakers, the last-minute stand-ins, the drivers, the fast runners, the steady runners and the spectators. I had a lovely day, and it was great to share it with so many new and old Harrier friends.

Words: Kevin Sinclair

Pictures: Martin Smith, Kevin Sinclair