This year we ended up with thirty-one teams entered, twenty-nine on the day, not too many people got lost, Reading didn’t win for once, it was windy so there were no record times, we were banned by the pub but everybody nonetheless seemed to enjoy themselves.

Full results are available on the Club Website, but for those of you who don’t already know, Swindon Harriers won, Reading were 2nd and we were 7th, 20th and 27th. Hard copies are available for the technologically challenged amongst you (although presumably if you are reading this in the first place you can get the results too), complete with full details on how quickly everybody ran on each leg and how their time related to every else who ran that leg - or any other leg for that matter. Incidentally, many congratulations to Pete Ward, fastest of 29 on stage 10.

A total of 10 new teams turned up; they did pretty well too, Headington coming 3rd and Leighton Buzzard 4th, with Alan Joslin’s National Powerjogging babes just beating our ‘B’ team into 19th place. Abingdon seemed to have the spirit entirely right, coming 25th overall but being consistently amongst the rear runners, except for a rush of blood to the head on stage 5, where they were very nearly fastest. Strangely enough the only ones who got really lost were Swindon Striders, who had two teams and who have done it all several times before, but to make their claim to immortality they achieved superhuman heights of displacement, having had their two runners spotted at various different places, running together along roads leading to and from really quite irrelevant places.

There were some absentees. Sadly, the Gurkhas had to pull out ‘because of operational difficulties in Kosovo’ and we hope they come home safely and can partake next year. Poole dropped out via a short message on the answering machine a couple of days before, so we never found out why. Amesbury ran quickly, but were too manly and were disqualified for insufficient woman. They tried to recruit Sharman on the day but, nobly, she refused. No doubt if they had offered her a new hair drier as an incentive ...............

South Stoke has always been a place where one could feel proud to be a member of Marlborough Running Club. Over the years the landlord of the pub has not greeted us warmly and it was decided by all and sundry, bar one, to keep him in ignorance of our approach. A new team captain (name hidden to protect the guilty) - who ended up what’s more not even running for his own team; well, really!, decided from the goodness of his heart to ‘negotiate’ a friendly reception. Result: we and everyone connected with the run were banned before we even got there! For your private memento copy of the banning notice as exhibited, contact me.

Winning time was 9:38:23; quicker than last year but 8 minutes slower than the record. Swindon Harriers were definitely trying this year too, but the head wind was ungenerous. If you want to know just how ungenerous, ask Fiona for her unbiased and unexpurgated opinion. It’s really quite colourful. Notwithstanding this our ‘A’ team did 10:48:20 in 7th place, 18 minutes faster than last year, when we were 6th - a sign of the increased competitiveness. Marlborough ‘B’ team took 11:59:43 in 20th place (last year 12:58:06 in 16th place) and ‘C’ team took 13:17:52 in 27th place (no’C’ last year). So well done to all our runners who took part.

Regular readers may recall that we decided last year to put up the entry fee from £20 to £30 per team; the net result was that a 50% increase in fees led to a 50% increase in teams taking part. Good job we didn’t put the fee up any more! The best thing about these numbers, of course, is that they provide the club with a financial buffer, so that we can go ahead and put on events like Tim’s excellent and magnificently organised trail race without having to worry about whether it breaks even in the first year (which in fact it did anyway: well done, Tim!). even though in the long term it should obviously be more than able to stand on its own financial legs.

Car parking at changeovers is always a problem of course and we may have to review the whole system and stage ends before next year. The changeovers were challenging for timekeepers with so many teams, especially the early ones where visibility of incoming runners was difficult and they were still bunched together. The timekeepers’ job was not easy and there was also one spectacularly successful game of ‘Let’s fool the timekeeper’ played on the innocent official at the end of stage 5 (me). Two runners approached, going flat out, wearing two different T-shirts of two different teams. In my immature over eagerness, I jumped to the ridiculous conclusion that there were actually two runners from two different teams that I saw before me and wrote down their finishing times. Several more teams finished. Then another runner hove into view, wearing a T-shirt from one of the two teams I had as having finished neck-and-neck already. ‘What is this?’ I cried, ‘Surely your runner has arrived already?’ 'Oh no’ they said, ‘That was someone from a different club, buddy-running with his own team runner, but wearing one of our T-shirts. You see, he’s a member of both clubs’. Next year, we shall give out running numbers!

All in all, then, the Challenge is still a great event (I’m biased), but has just about reached its maximum amount of possible teams under the present system. We have a couple of places for next year already promised if the teams can get to use them (the Gurkhas and H.M.S. Marlborough) , so there may well be pressure for the other places. At the moment, we hope to send out invitations just before Christmas, so watch the post!

For now, once again many thanks to everyone who ran, who timekept, who turned up to watch and be friendly, to Wendy’s family who set up the bar in the Town Hall, to the lovely people who had the pub in South Stoke and may they enjoy their retirement, to Graham and Tim for the speeches, to Alan for checking the results and publishing them and to Margie for letting me out to play for the day.

Next year; RW Challenge 2K, June 18th. Book it now!

Nick J.