Hart 4 Relay 2019
On Sunday 11th August 6 Harriers teams and supporters travelled to Minley Manor near fleet for a fun and exciting 4k relay. This was a 4-hour relay over a 4k hilly trail course with 4 people per team.
From the Harriers that entered we had 1 men’s, 2 ladies and 3 mixed teams competing. Each of the teams selected their first runner who lined up at the start line at 10:25am ready for the 10:30am start. We were surprised when it started a little early but were quickly all off on our first laps.
From the start line along the gravel road we soon turned right into a grassy field with a few small hills and then onto a nice flat dirt/gravel road, not long after the 1k marker the course started to go into woods and up some steeper sections winding up the hill side. At the top it was flat for about 1k until you turn left and down a steep track and then right onto the section along the edge of the event village, from here you can see the finish line, further down this hill at the side of the course was where we set up our gazebo and chairs, you could hear the other harriers cheering and ringing the cow bells from a distance. As we ran past everyone was shouting words of encouragement which really helped. At this point we only needed to turn left at the bottom of the hill and sprint to the finish line, we handed over our wrist band to the next runner in our teams and repeated till the 4-hour time limit ran out.
One of the highlights of the day was watching our male team of Chris, John, James and Mark in a very close race against the Stubbington male team. With every lap they passed it was side by side or a few seconds between them and every time they ran past, we didn’t know who would be in the lead. It was only in the last couple of laps of this 4 hour race that we started gaining some lead of the other team which gave Chris on the final lap a good head start which he extended to 2min when he crossed the line and as a team set a new course record of 17 laps in 4:06:48.
Equally impressive was our female team of Hannah, Philly, Harriet and Martha who run amazingly all day holding onto to 3rd place almost from the start. They finished with 14 laps in a time of 4:00:27 just narrowly missing out on starting another lap.
Massive well done to all the Harriers teams that raced. As a club we had a 1st from the men, 3rd from the ladies and really good results from everyone else, also thank you to everyone that came to support, we must have been the loudest team there. We will be back next year.
Race pros.
Well organised by Hart road runners
Good parking
Food van
Lots of area to set up gazebos
Hilly but fun course
Great atmosphere
Value for money (t-shirt, medal and free beer)
Fun team/club event.
Race cons.
Its only once a year
Thanks to Kevin and others for the pictures.