2019 Run the Claydons

2019 Run the Claydons

This Sunday, in my series entitled "where I was taking photos this time last year", I'm looking at the 2019 Run the Claydons. The venue is Botolph Claydon, a small village in Buckinghamshire that is about 7M SE of Buckingham and about 7M N of Waddesdon. It's about 40M from Oxford.

The race's web page says "the Run the Claydons is a 7M multi-terrain run that follows a route through the villages of East, Botolph and Middle Claydon and around the lands of the Claydon Estate. It has been updated for 2020 to include running in front of Claydon House and through the Claydon Estate courtyard. It uses an undulating course that follows footpaths, crosses fields, passes through woods and uses farm tracks and local lanes."

The race was planned to take place today (Sun Apr 26th). They are now running the race on Sun Oct 4th. There's a link to onlineEntry on my website.

By the way, you can click on any of the photos on this web page to see the photo in hi-res.

The route of the race

I'm guessing you may not be familiar with this area. So, before showing you photos of some of those who did well in last year's race, I'll first show a map of the race route and then some photos taken along the route.

I've nicked this map from this mailshot about the race. The route planned for the 2020 Run the Claydons is shown in black and it is run clockwise starting/finishing at the "S-F" symbol that's just North of Botolph Claydon.

Now for some photos taken along the route. Although I took a couple of these, two of the photos of Claydon House are from flickr but most of the photos I've grabbed from geograph. The photos I've grabbed from flickr were taken by Amateur with a Camera and they are released with this Creative Commons Licence. The photos I'm using from geograph were taken by Philip Jeffrey, Andy Gryce, Shaun Ferguson, Mr Biz and Jon S. They are released with this Creative Commons Licence. Bear in mind that the photos from flickr and geograph were taken several years ago. You can click on any of these photos to see who took it. I'm also linking to some videos of the race route that were kindly provided by the race organiser.

As you can see from the map, the race starts off by heading South along a road towards and through the village of Botolph Claydon. To begin with the race is using the Bernwood Jubilee Way, a 61M route around the Bernwood Forest, a Royal hunting forest dating back to the 10th century. The section of the route along this road is shown in this 1m59s video.

The above photo shows that, on the South end of the village of Botolph Claydon, the route takes this track pass a duck pond.
The route immediately after the duck pond is shown in this 1m16s video.

As shown on the map, it is using a footpath (that is a public right of way) that runs through this field.

And then alongside the side of this field towards the woods in the distance.

The wood is Runt's Wood and the route continues along a bridleway called Three Points Lane that runs alongside the wood.

The route continues moving SouthWest along the Three Points Lane bridleway that is part of the Bernwood Jubilee Way.

At this point, the race leaves the Bernwood Jubilee Way and switches from moving SouthWest to moving NorthWest. It takes this bridleway through Romer Wood. This is still Three Points Lane. Although it'll normally be quiet when the race gets here, that'll change in the future because for the next 1.5K the route of the HS2 runs parallel to the race route about 1K to the SouthWest of the race route. Of concern is the effect the construction of the HS2 will have on the Bechstein’s bats and other woodland bats that live in this area.

The route continues moving NorthWest along the bridleway through Romer Wood.

At this junction, the race route switches from NW to NNE. In the caption to the above photo, Andy Gryce says "This section of Three Points Lane looking north from Knowlhill Farm towards Middle Claydon is dead straight, is lined with poplar trees and has no obvious power or telephone lines, which explains why it has been used as a location for films portraying Napoleonic France."!!! He also says "Three Points Lane is a curiously roundabout thoroughfare changing direction several times so as to resemble the three sides of a square, hence no doubt its name." The race route has already done two sides - it's about to do the third.

As you can see it is "dead straight". If you hate running never-ending straights then this one's about 1.25K long.
The race route now enters the land of Claydon House passing the Church of All Saints. A web page from British History Online says "The nave dates from the beginning of the 14th century and the west tower from the end of the 15th. The date of the chancel is fixed by an inscription over the north door, 'Rogerus Giffard et Maria uxor ejus hanc cancellam fieri fecerunt anno dñi 1519'". The inscription translates as "Roger Giffard and his wife, Mary, had the chancel built in the year of our lord 1519".
That web page from British History Online also says "Claydon House was originally built in the time of Henry VII, probably by Roger Gifford (or Giffard), lessee under the first Sir Ralph Verney. In its present state, the House, as far as external appearance goes, is a fine 18th-century building, but although retaining much 17th-century internal detail, it is probably of 16th-century construction." Wikipedia says "The house was given to the National Trust in 1956 by Sir Ralph Verney, 5th Baronet. His son, Sir Edmund Verney, 6th Baronet, a former High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, lives in the house today."
The bit of the race route that passes the Church and Claydon House is shown in this 0m50s video.

The race route planned for 2020 goes past the courtyard of Claydon House. The bit of the race route that passes Claydon House and goes through the courtyard is shown in this 2m17s video.

After leaving Claydon House, there's a short section of road through Middle Claydon and then the race route takes a footpath - a public right of way - through a cemetery. The footpath runs alongside the hedge in the above photo passing some gravestones on the left in the above photo. This is back on the Bernwood Jubilee Way which is followed to the finish.
The section of the route along the road through Middle Claydon and through the cemetery is shown in this 2m14s video.

The race route uses this footpath alongside this field.

And then goes diagonally across this field.

And then through this gate. There are a few gates to negotiate on the route. The race route is now aiming for the village of East Claydon. The final section of off-road before the road leading into East Claydon is shown in this 2m05s video. The last bit of this video is along the road to East Claydon. In the 17th-century this road formed part of the main road from Birmingham to London along which there was a regular wagon service some wagons diverting from this road to pick up from Claydon House.

At the end of the video, the race route reaches the junction shown in the above photo. At this point,the race route turns right along the road that leads to Botolph Claydon. The race finishes alongside this road.

Photos of those who were first in each of the male categories

Time for some photos of runners doing the 2019 Run the Claydons. First, here are photos of those who were first in each of the male categories. These photos are ordered by the position of the runner.

Luke Delderfield (48, Tring_RC) was 1st and the 1st SM finishing in a chiptime of 0:38:44.

Emerson Combstock (43, Coventry_Godiva_Harriers) was 4th and the 1st MV40 finishing in a chiptime of 0:42:50.

Michael Burgess (214, Tring_RC) was 5th and the 1st MV50 finishing in a chiptime of 0:43:23.

Tony Barrows (12, Bearbrook_RC) was the 1st MV60 finishing in a chiptime of 0:56:32.

Photos of those who were first in each of the female categories

Next, there are photos of those who were first in each of the female categories. These photos are ordered by the position of the runner.

Claire Rulton (134, Bedford_Harriers_AC) was the 1st female and the 1st FV35 finishing in a chiptime of 0:50:01.

Laura Brown (28, Buckingham_and_Stowe_RC) was the 2nd female and the 1st SL finishing in a chiptime of 0:50:05.

Julie Bennett (15, Chesterton_Trail_Runners) was the 1st FV45 finishing in a chiptime of 0:58:21.

Verna Burgess (213, Tring_RC) was the 1st FV55 finishing in a chiptime of 0:54:59.

Photos of those who were first for each running club that is not mentioned above

Finally, here are photos of those runners who were first for each running club taking part that is not mentioned above. These photos are ordered by the name of the running club.

Matthew Thatcher (205, Alchester_RC) was the 9th SM finishing in a chiptime of 0:45:12.

Caron Hiscock (209, Benfleet_RC) was the 28th FV45 finishing in a chiptime of 1:19:59.
Benfleet is between Basildon and Southend.

Kate Lowe (193, Bicester_Tri) was the 24th FV45 and Stephanie Harrison (70, Bicester_Tri) was the 9th FV55. They both finished in a chiptime of 1:17:05.

James Olliffe (116, Brackley_and_District_RC) was 3rd and the 3rd SM finishing in a chiptime of 0:41:17.

Mario Martinez-Seron (178, British_Triathlon) was the 4th MV40 finishing in a chiptime of 0:44:36.

Warren Harrison (71, Cherwell_Runners_and_Joggers) was the 15th MV40 finishing in a chiptime of 0:53:11.

David Saul (140, Chiltern_Harriers_AC) was the 12th MV50 finishing in a chiptime of 0:55:23.

Nigel Wiggins (172, Dacorum_and_Tring_AC) was the 24th MV40 finishing in a chiptime of 0:58:13.

Catriona Scott (211, Headington_RoadRunners) was the 4th FV35 finishing in a chiptime of 0:53:28.

Andrea Finnigan (53, Kidlington_RC) was the 3rd FV35 finishing in a chiptime of 0:52:53.

Julian Ham (68, Leighton_Fun_Runners) was the 7th MV50 finishing in a chiptime of 0:51:36.

Remy Dubois (51, Lonely_Goat_RC) was the 28th MV40 finishing in a chiptime of 0:59:44.

Ken Munro (219, Marshall_Milton_Keynes_AC) was the 9th MV40 finishing in a chiptime of 0:48:16.

Allan Lock (100, Midland_Masters_AC) was the 5th MV60 finishing in a chiptime of 1:01:38.

Mark Rose (132, Northampton_RR) was the 23rd MV40 finishing in a chiptime of 0:57:11.

Jason Newland (112, On_the_Run) was the 6th MV40 finishing in a chiptime of 0:45:16.

Tim Giffen (60, Redway_Runners) was the 8th MV40 finishing in a chiptime of 0:48:19.

Ben Hope (80, Rugby_and_Northampton_AC) was 2nd and the 2nd SM finishing in a chiptime of 0:40:54.

Andrew Stephenson (152, Vale_of_Aylesbury_AC) was the 18th MV50 finishing in a chiptime of 0:57:21.

Footnotes

If you did the race and want a reminder, then here's a link to all the photos that I took. There's a calculator on that web page that makes it easy to find the photos of a runner given their time and you can find the time from the results.

If you want to see the reviews I've done on other 2019 races, then here's a link to a web page that includes an index of the reviews of 2019 races.

Next Sunday, I'm returning closer to home as I plan to review the first of the Mota-vation races. This is the one that takes place at Charlton-on-Otmoor.

Metadata

This web page is at www.oxonraces.com/blog/2020-04-26-botolph-claydon-bucks. It was created on 7th April 2020 and last updated on 26th April 2020.

I maintain a web page for runners that provides a list of races near Oxfordshire and the latest results. Visit www.oxonraces.com and follow @oxonraces