2019 Chalgrove Festival 10K

2019 Chalgrove Festival 10K

Today, in my series entitled "where I was taking photos this time last year", I'm looking at the 2019 Chalgrove Festival 10K which takes place from Chalgrove, a village that is about 13M SE of Oxford.

The organiser's website says "we are proud to boast one of Oxfordshire's most scenic courses with an undulating 10K single lap race through local villages and the surrounding South Oxfordshire countryside. The start and finish is at the Chalgrove Village Festival ground." The race usually takes place on the first Bank Holiday in May. So last year's race took place on Mon May 6th. This year the Bank Holiday has been moved to Fri May 8th in order to commemorate the 75th anniversary of VE Day, the end of the Second World War in Europe. So this year's race has been renamed the "ChalgroVE 75 Celebration 10K" and was to have taken place today (Fri May 8th). Unfortunately, it has had to be cancelled.

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

Before showing you photos of some runners 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.

This map is taken from the organiser's web site. As you can see, the route is shaped a bit like an upside-down letter P - so it's out and back for about 2K with a circular bit that's just over 6K long. This circular bit visits the villages of Berrick Prior, Berrick Salome and Roke. Apart from the start/finish, the race is all on road.

Photos of the race route

Now for some photos taken along the route. The first photo and the last three photos are taken from the organiser's photo gallery; I've grabbed six photos from Google Maps and the rest are grabbed from geograph. The photos I'm using from geograph were taken by Alan Murray-Rust, Shaun Ferguson, Bill Nicholls, Stuart Logan, Des Blenkinsopp and Robin Webster. They are released with this Creative Commons Licence. Bear in mind that the photos from Google and geograph were taken several years ago. You can click on any of these photos to see where it comes from. Thanks to the photographers for these photos.

The organisers provide a video of the race route. It's 4m25s long.

The race starts in the midst of the Chalgrove Festival. The above photo shows the start of the 2019 Chalgrove Festival 10K.

The first 1K of the race is in the village of Chalgrove including a stretch along the length of the High Street, part of which is shown in the above photo.

At 1K the race route starts to enter the countryside.

At 2K the race route reaches this T-junction. The marshals guide the runners to go straight on. On the way back, they'll return along Hollandtide Road which is the road that comes in from the left.

As the above photo shows, at 3K it's using a pretty tree-lined lane.

The first village that the route meets is Berrick Prior.

And it's the first pub, the Chequers Inn - "a Grade II listed pub that was constructed in the early 18th Century".

The above photo shows the road between Berrick Prior and the race route soon reaches ...

.. the next village which is Berrick Salome.

In Berrick Salome the route comes along this road and then it turns left along the road to Roke which is where the road to the right in this photo goes.

Time for another pub - this is the Home Sweet Home in Roke.

After Roke, the route turns left to go along this narrow lane and it reaches 6K.

The route comes in from the left and turns left to go up Hollandtide Road. This is the meanest part of the route as after 6K it throws in a few small hills. The first one is shown in the above photo - the route ascends from 62m to 86m in about 0.75K. Once you get to 86m you drop down to 76m at the point where an ancient path, Hollandtide Bottom, crosses the road. And then it's back up to 86m after which I think it's all down a gradual slope to the finish.

This photo shows some sheds alongside Hollandtide Road.

This part of Hollandtide Road is at about the 8K point.

At the end of Hollandtide Road the route reaches the T-junction it met earlier at 2K. From here the route is using most of the route taken on the way out.

And at about 9K, it re-enters the village of Chalgrove ...

... and finishes back in the midst of the Chalgrove Festival. The above photo shows the winner of the 2019 Chalgrove Festival 10K being applauded by those enjoying the Festival.

And there are prizes for those that did well in their age category.

And there's the Festival (including the beer tent!) to enjoy after the race.

Photos of the Male runners who did well at the 2019 Chalgrove Festival 10K

Here are some photos of the male runners who finished in the top 3 and/or were first in their age category. These photos are ordered by the position of the runner.

Graham Hope (260, Kidlington_RC) was 1st and the 1st SM finishing in a time of 00:34:34.
The second photo was taken at about 6.1K - it shows that at this point Graham's built up a convincing lead - he finishes 1m36s ahead of ...

... Matthew Lock (271, Witney_Road_Runners) who was 2nd and the 2nd SM finishing in a time of 00:36:10.

James Eve (333, Headington_RoadRunners) was 3rd and the 1st MV40 finishing in a time of 00:36:23.

Robert Storey (449, Eynsham_Roadrunners) was 5th and the 1st MV50 finishing in a time of 00:36:45.

David Wright (495, Cirencester_AC) was the 1st MV60 finishing in a time of 00:38:27.

Photos of the Female runners who did well at the 2019 Chalgrove Festival 10K

Here are some photos of the female runners who finished in the top 3 and/or were first in their age category. These photos are ordered by the position of the runner.

Claire Hallissey (71, Dacorum_and_Tring) was the 1st female and the 1st FV35 finishing in a time of 00:38:30.

Emily McLoughlin (31, Didcot_Runners) was the 2nd female and the 1st SL finishing in a time of 00:39:38.
This photo which was taken at 2K shows the women who were 1st and 2nd. In the end, Claire (71) beats Emily (31) by 1m08s.

Rachel Masser (179, Woodstock_Harriers) was the 3rd female and the 1st FV45 finishing in a time of 00:39:51.

Jacky Pinnock (212, Eynsham_Roadrunners) was the 1st FV55 finishing in a time of 00:48:49.

Photos of other club runners

Here are photos of the runner who was first for those other clubs who had more than 2 runners competing. These photos are ordered by the name of the running club.

James Hobson (389, Abingdon_AC) was the 6th MV40 finishing in a time of 00:41:21.

Kevin French (336, Alchester_RC) was the 3rd MV40 finishing in a time of 00:38:29.

Michelle Bartlett (124, Banbury_Harriers) was the 9th female and the 4th FV45 finishing in a time of 00:43:28.

Brian Venton (370, Benfleet_RC) was the 8th MV40 finishing in a time of 00:42:21.
Benfleet is between Basildon and Southend.

Dave Wallace (371, Handy_Cross_Runners) was the 5th MV40 finishing in a time of 00:40:55.

Stewart Thorp (492, Oxford_City_AC) was the 2nd MV60 finishing in a time of 00:41:09.

Faye Sharpley (37, Thame_Runners) was the 5th female and the 2nd SL finishing in a time of 00:41:46.

Richard and Dorothy Gray (Totley_AC) were the 32nd MV60 and the 12th FV55 both finishing in a time of 01:04:21.
Totley AC is a "fell and road running club based in South-West Sheffield".

Rod Murray (274, Run_Wallingford) was the 17th SM finishing in a time of 00:41:08.

Mike Unwin (316, Wallingford_Triathlon_Club) was the 18th SM finishing in a time of 00:41:21.

Terry Cooper (238, White_Horse_Harriers) was the 9th SM finishing in a time of 00:39:18.

Photos of the first Chalgrove residents

In the results of the race, the organisers of the Chalgrove Festival 10K always point out those who are locals. So, here are photos of the runners who were the first male and female Chalgrove residents.

Ben Gooding (338, unattached) was the 15th MV40 finishing in a time of 00:44:33.

Catherine Davies (61, unattached) was the 4th FV35 finishing in a time of 00:45:30.

Postscript

If you did the Chalgrove Festival 10K in 2019 and want a reminder, then here's a link to all the photos that I took. The organiser's web site has lots of other photos - there are photos of runners at the start, at the finish and at the prizegiving. And there are photos of other activities at the Chalgrove Festival. The results of the 2019 Chalgrove Festival 10K are on this web page.

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.

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

This web page is at www.oxonraces.com/blog/2020-05-08-chalgrove. It was created on 4th May 2020 and last updated on 8th May 2020.