Kent Road Relays 2025 – #1 Folkestone

Race report by Phil Stevens:

At last! The Kent Road Relays have returned.

Such a popular event with many Kent running clubs taking part.

They were in full swing, attracting large numbers and then COVID struck…..

After a failed attempt to start them last year, we are up and running and last night (Tuesday 13th) saw the opener at Folkestone sea front at 7pm.

For those who don’t know, basically our club has to field as many possible runners as we can (ALL ABILITIES). We then can make up A, B, C…. teams (I noticed Folkestone V40 men fielded a D team too !?!). Therefore there really is no limit as to how many runners we put out and it’s not all about the quickest (there is a time limit though – 30mins).

Teams are made up of (for the boys), 4 senior, 4 V40, 3 V50 and 3 V60. For the girls its 3 senior, 3 V35, 3 V45 and 3 V55.

Not as many TRACies signed up for the first one, however we did manage to field a team in all categories + managed a B team for the boys V40.

The route is typically about 2.5 miles, however this one was just over 2 miles, one of the shorter ones. It started on the sea wall at Sandgate Castle, then headed off towards Folkestone. As can be seen by the below YouTube video, the first leg is a bit cramped!

The race went off on time and all the 1st leg runners were off holding their baton. Don’t drop the baton (unlike the poor lady in the below video) as the timing chip is in there!

It was a fast flat mile out and just a slight head wind to slow us down. The sky was blue, the sun was shining and around 14 degrees, the conditions were great. Annoyingly Folkestone decided to put a hill in the middle, so you had to do a sharp left and run about 200 meters up a hill towards the Lower Leas gardens where it was around a cone then back down. A quick left and up another 100 meters towards Folkestone before turning around a cone and heading back. We now had a bit of wind assistance and it was just a case of digging deep and thinking it’s just 1 mile!!

It was great to see other TRAC runners on their leg, but we all only seemed to manage a baton wave as we were breathing so hard.

The finish came into sight and resulted in a sprint finish to the line. As you cross the line you either hand your baton over to the next person in your team (make sure the baton goes across the timing mat!) or if you are the last team member, hang on to it as the job is done.

The cheers from other team members at the start / finish is quite incredible really and what really makes this event as well as the camaraderie before and after.

A special thanks goes to Simon Cowdery (club treasurer) who as a V50 stepped in at 10pm the night before to cover for one of the Vet 40 boys who pulled out the day before with an injury. What a legend.

Some really outstanding results on the night and with limited numbers, we really did perform well across the board.

Click here for the results.

https://www.racetecresults.com/results.aspx?CId=20246&RId=15194&EId=4&sfnsn=scwspwa

Next up is Dover on Tuesday 27th May (7.30pm). We need more runners, so please sign up, it’s pay as you go and so much fun, you won’t regret it. Contact your club captains if you’re interested. The club captains work so hard to shuffle the teams around so that everyone gets the chance to run a leg.