Saturday 28th June

100 miles, 18 legs.  The route – Eastbourne to Winchester along the hilly, South Downs Way – It is of course the South Downs Relays 🖤❤️

Rescheduled from June 7th due to a severe met office warning of thunderstorms, 34 teams competed this year with each runner in the team taking on three non-consecutive legs, (on average around six miles each leg), handing over a baton to the next runner, jumping in a mini-bus 🚌 before heading off to the next leg in an attempt to beat a challenging cut-off time (14 hours) and a race against the clock to finish in Winchester ⏰

Starting at the Beachy Head Pub, we fielded one team (originally two) with Ruffs 👨🏻‍✈️ and Oli 💴 at the helm 🚌 and Claire 🍒, KT 🦆, Chris D 🚀, Linford 🍪, DG 🛀, and Los 👶🏼 making up our fabulous A Team (1x Driver, 1x Co-Pilot and 6x runners 🚌)

Heading off at 7:30am to tackle Leg 1 over the seven sisters saw Claire 🍒 set off in thick fog 🌫️ When the weather presents like this, all leg one runners must set off together for safety until they reach Birling Gap, then the race to Winchester begins🖤❤️

Everyone knows what it’s like to run, flat out, in a 10k race.  Our runners did that not once but three times over the course of 12+ hours.  There are no marshals, no pacers, no one to yell encouragement, no race directions, no distance markers, and no water stations.  But what you do have is your own amazing team support 🖤❤️at the beginning and end of each leg, plenty of banter 🤡 along the way, beautiful scenery 🌴 , singing 🎵, more food than a supermarket 🛒, great camaraderie between all clubs, and the experience of a day like no other.

Big thanks to Annette 💚, Lisa PH 🧡 and Graham Pundye 😂 who did a sterling job marshalling the leg 1/2 changeover at Exceat.  They had the wonderful pleasure of signing in and out teams, ensuring safe road crossings and setting off runners at the start of leg 2 safely (as it crosses a very busy road).  Hailsham Harriers have always had the honour of marshalling the leg 1/2 changeover and it is always a fantastic morning.  Who doesn’t like a Hi Viz, a clipboard and a pair of binoculars? 😂

Our mighty fabulous team reached Winchester in glorious sunshine ☀️ in a rapido time.  Our A team finished in 12:04:56 placing an impressive 7th out of 20 teams in their category and 7th overall from all four categories (A team, Ladies, Men’s and Vets) This also represented our quickest time since 2012 (10:49:27) – amazing 😻

The overall winning team (for the 3rd consecutive year) with a winning time of 10:24:40 were Brighton and Hove AC 🏆 who started at 8:30am, with Lewes AC 2nd 🥈 and Phoenix 3rd 🥉

Racing is mostly a selfish activity.  We race to improve our PB’s, win prizes, or add to our medal collections . In the SDR, you’re running for YOUR team, not yourself. The day is about sticking together, helping each other and above all, doing your best.  That’s the magic of the SDR 🪄 For Chris 🚀, Claire 🍒 and KT 🦆 this represented their first taste of this event and we can safely say they’ve now popped their SDR cherries 🍒

The heroes of the day though, go firstly to our drivers and navigators, it’s a tough job looking after everyone, keeping an eye on the stop watches ⏰ and navigating those little country lanes 🚌 🙌 and to those runners that take on the beast of leg 17, the longest leg of the day and one that takes the most grit and determination.  Dave Garratt 🛀 take a bow 🙇🏾 you smashed it again for a second year 🖐️ 💥 and we all wish you the best of luck tomorrow.

A huge shout out and a BIG thank you to everyone who put themselves forward to run, reserve, practised legs, gave up their day, marshalled and supported.

Our team gave it their best, represented our club with bravery and determination – they excelled themselves and we are all incredibly proud of each of them.  Runner, driver or navigator – one team 🙌

Until next year …… 🖤❤️ (Saturday June 6th 2026)