Inter Club Relays 2025 – Round 2 – Samphire Hoe

This event was all about facing the elements! With the weather being truly dreadful in the 24-26 hours before gun-time, the organisers went down to the course the day before, in gale force winds and driving rain, for a run through (literally) of a Plan B course. Lucky (some say!) that they did as the original route, along the sea wall, was closed at lunchtime, so Plan B was invoked.
It’s fair to say that if someone were to dedicate songs to it, top candidates would be ‘Take My Breath Away’ and ‘When the Going Gets Tough’.
The orange train had a strong attendance and brilliant team spirit, considering they were up against an ‘undulating’ (hilly!) course and a head wind of over 40mph for most of it.
A particular shout out to Jo Donaldson who arrived home from holiday at 2am, hadn’t slept and still turned up to run the anchor leg in the FV55B team, and to Simon Cox, who went down to the wire on arrival time, waiting for his shed to arrive. Luckily he made it, helping the MV60 A team to bag second place.
The FV55A team of Jill Cliff, Annette Nixon and Louise Moore kept control at the front and came in first place, and the FV45A grabbed a second place. We are vastly outnumbered despite having 7 women’s and 7 men’s team in the game, so all runs matter.
On the men’s side, the Senior team A got nudged into 5th place with very close times, and the Senior B team came 13th – but SIX TEAMS finished within 30 seconds!
It will be known as ‘that relay where you couldn’t breathe for half of it’. It definitely wasn’t one for personal bests, just turning up was a triumph, and the conditions added something like 1-4 minutes to everyone’s time, compared to the Folkestone round (which was flat and sunny!). All credit to Dover Road Runners for hosting, organising and rewriting this event.
Next round is at Ashford on 10th June. Here’s hoping for tail winds and a coolly warm evening.
Team:
Verity Hodges, Ellie Matthews, Holly Rye, Marika Landy, Abi Darrell, Gaby Roch, Lisa Buckler, Anita Pollard, Abbie Kirkham, Bronwen Lafferty, Eryka Smith, Nic Carter, Jane Wisbey, Helen Hill, Kim Latham, Jill Cliff, Annette Nixon, Louise Moore, Tina Barton, Lorraine Lyons, Jo Donaldson, Jane Povey, Sally Scoggins, Rebecca Simcox, Toby Smith, Dave Gibb, Richard Devereux, James Wisbey, Ben McGhee, Mark Baker, Ashley Robert-Moyle, Dave Pickup, Stuart Phillips, Jim McNeill, Lee Gavin, Adrian Parkinson, Stuart Dean, Graeme Rawlings, Sean Richards, Stuart Neilson, Dave Mitchell, Ian Gavin, Tony Ansell, Mark Baldock, Simon Cox, Dave Martin, Kev Brown, Dave Gill.