The 65th Annual Alumni Race at Roehampton

The recent thick covering of snow was left behind in Shropshire and Wimbledon Common was just very wet underfoot, as we discovered on our return to the Thames Hare & Hounds Running Club’s 65th Annual Alumni Race.

The OSH Team of seven had been formed out of nine, depleted by illness, but potency was not diminished because experience and youth were present.  Last year’s Senior Whip, Will Hayward (R 2012-17) made the journey from Powys to experience the event and James Humpish (SH 2008-13) came along to join us for the first time as well.  Previous Huntswoman, Liv Papaioannou (EDH 2014-16) and Kris Blake (S 2009-11) presented themselves for their second visit, to join more frequent participants, including Rupert Lougee (SH 1988-93), Ben Hebblethwaite (R 1986-91) and me.

We did a bit of a warm-up in the chilly air of this South London district, before recording a photograph of our team, kindly taken by Greg, who came with Liv to show support and subsequently, thankfully, managed to snap a few more pics of the event. It was at this point that we found out that the Start-Line & Finish had been moved into a neighbouring field to avoid ‘disturbing’ a rugby tournament being held on this vast area of 10 pitches at the Richardson Evans Memorial Playing Fields. The sight of nearly 300 bodies in vest & shorts charging across a grassy plain must be disturbing, so we crowded together at the bottom end of the adjacent pasture, trying to listen to an inaudible voice giving instructions before the shout of ‘GO!’ at 2.30pm, at which point the mass of runners set off, skirting the edge of two fields, before entering the wooded ground of this south-west part of Wimbledon Common and picking up the route of the original course for this old event.

The benefits of spikes or studded shoes were realised as soon as we forced our way along the muddy paths and slippery uphill climbs, trying to overtake each faltering runner up in front, demoralising them and taking the advantage. It was reported that Liv, Kris, Will and Ben had gained good forward positions by half-way and we were all progressing well, with the help of good course marshals and many path flags to point the way. After the long straight bridle track across the top part of the course, we returned to a variety of wooded rise and fall tracks, eventually taking us to the notorious last section, which includes ‘The Butts’ (!) This is probably the most testing part of the route, where it goes unforgivingly uphill through deep mud and across roots of surrounding trees and bushes, before then dropping down to the opening into the corner of the Playing Fields and a fairly level finish, next to the start.

I was surprised to see that my GPS watch showed me that this course was a quarter of a mile longer than previous years, at 5.07 miles (= 8.16 k). Last year it measured 4.82 miles (=7.76 k), so I wasn’t so concerned by my time! As soon as I cleared the finish funnel, I found the Team surrounding Greg with Liv, who had made some excellent chocolate brownies for us and they tasted so good amongst the mud and sweat.

Before Ben and Rupert had to depart to beat the oncoming dusk, we got another photo of the Team with MUD:

TH&H had also provided tea and cakes back at their gazebo, besides the Pavilion and gave us an opportunity to discuss our experiences, before showering and dispersing into the night.

As usual, we all enjoyed this traditional cross-country race and hope that the OSH can increase its team size so that we might be able to challenge the likes of Sherborne (a team of 32), who won and Winchester (15), who were second, in the future.

Until confirmation of all results by TH&H, I have extracted the following from https://opentrack.info: the individual who won the race was William Ryle-Hodges of Eton, in a time of 26:51, which is 37 seconds slower than last year’s winner. There were 318 entries, but only 273 started and one did not finish. Our Team was 12th out of 35 teams in the Open Category. In the V40 category, we were 13th out of 31. In the V50 category, 22nd out of 27 and in the V60, 8th out of 17. There was an “Age-Graded Category” (?) where we came 13th out of 35 teams.  Kris Blake was first in for us at 44th in a time of 31:54, quickly followed by Ben Hebblethwaite at 45th (31:56). Will Hayward ran the course in 33:15 to finish in 62nd place. Rupert Lougee was 133rd (36:48), Liv Papaioannou was 156th (38:09), James Humpish entered the funnel at 215th (42:06) and I was given 224th place at a time of 42:53, delayed by the extra ¼ mile added to the course !

Have a look at more photos on the OSH Facebook page - please join the Facebook Group if you haven’t already.

Peter Birch (DB 1966-71)