Canterbury Harriers’ men narrowly failed to retain the title they had won last year, but the Harrier women triumphed in their first attempt at the event.

Canterbury Harriers’ men’s team (Laurence Shaw, Graham Brown, Joe Hicks, Steve Clark and Alastair Telford) just missed out on following up their 2000 Saxon Shore Relay success losing out to the Pfizer Discovery section team by less than a minute over almost 47 miles and 5 hours 20 minutes of running.

Whilst the men just lost out, the “Canterbury Harriets”, comprising Carol Reid, Sue Reilly, Dianne August, Kate Prescott and Mary Drewett, easily won the women’s race and would probably have done well in the open competition.

The table below shows the legs and the times taken for the members of the men’s team. All the figures (apart, perhaps, from the team’s overall time of 5:19:50) should be taken with a pinch of salt!

Leg No Start Finish Distance Alastair Steve Joe Graham Laurence
1 Cheriton Hill Canterbury Road 1.5 9:12
2 Canterbury Road Valiant Sailor 1.4   8:22
3 Valiant Sailor Royal Oak 1.7     12:35
4 Royal Oak Shakespeare Tunnel 2.5       18:36
5 Shakespeare Tunnel White Cliffs Experience 1.9         12:17
6 White Cliffs Experience Fox Hill Down C/P 1.5 9:28
7 Fox Hill Down C/P Coastguard Inn 2.7   20:32
8 Coastguard Inn Zetland Arms 2.5     21:37
9 Zetland Arms IRB Station 2.0       12:33
10 IRB Station Sandown Castle 1.8         11:32
11 Sandown Castle Dickson’s Corner 2.0 12:20
12 Dickson’s Corner The New Cut 2.0   11:03
13 The New Cut Richborough Road 1.8     12:18
14 Richborough Road Sandhills Farm 3.0       20:33
15 Sandhills Farm Elmstone Church 3.0         19:12
16 Elmstone Church Grove Ferry 3.2 21:10
17 Grove Ferry Boyden Gate 2.1   14:00
18 Boyden Gate Reculver Towers 2.6     21:34
19 Reculver Towers Seaview Road 2.3       16:06
20 Seaview Road Hampton Point 2.0         13:25
21 Hampton Point Long Rock 1.6 11:29
22 Long Rock Whitstable 1.6   9:02
       
    Total distances 46.70 9.8 9.8 8.6 9.8 8.7
    Total time 5:19:50 63:39 62:59 68:04 67:48 56:26
    Average pace per mile 6:51 6:30 6:26 7:54 6:55 6:29