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Since leaving Cirencester on 8th July our two intrepid teams of runners, The Euro Trailblazers and The Euro Globetrotters, have been exploring the sights of Northern Europe. Leg one was a short 93 mile trip down the M4 to London before heading south on a longer 266 mile trip to Paris for leg 2.

At the start of this week the teams were well on their way to Paris both covering the total of 357 miles from Cirencester arriving in the French capital in time for lunch on Monday. The Trailblazers holding a huge 6 mile lead by the close of play on Monday…

Leg 3 –

After arriving in Paris for lunch on Monday the two teams were then tasked with 204 miles heading east towards Luxembourg.

Those of us of a certain age will remember Radio Luxembourg as the soundtrack to our youth so for this leg members were asked to provide photos of Pirates or Radios. As you can see Tracey and Sallie came up trumps with some Pirates while Dave enjoyed a run listening to Radiohead.

By Thursday evening both teams had arrived in Luxembourg with The Trailblazers extending their earlier lead to 25 miles.

Leg 4 –

Leaving Luxembourg early on Friday morning the teams were now heading 117 miles North into Belgium on the way to the home of the EU in Brussels.

It was inevitable that a short distance leg starting on a Friday would not take long to complete and both teams managed to cover the distance before Saturday lunchtime.
the teams were tasked to take images showing the colours of the Belgium flag however they flew through the distance so quickly they didn’t stop to take the pictures…

Leg 5 –

Leg 5 saw the teams continuing North from Brussels into The Netherlands to Amsterdam on another short leg of just 124 miles.

For this leg we had to use the famous Dutch orange theme with members enjoying orange drinks, recording runs on orange watches, wearing orange headgear and a throwback image of Team RSE in Amsterdam during 2017.

Needless to say with it being a weekend, traditionally reserved for long runs, the two teams soon had the 124 miles cracked off ending the weekend in Amsterdam.

Leg 6 –

Leaving Amsterdam first thing on Monday morning the teams are now heading East again into Northern Germany with a 258.6 mile journey to Cirencester’s twin town Itzehoe…

Week 2 – Leaderboard

Euro Trailblazers

• Total Miles – 838.36
• Top 3 runners – 
  • Kevin Joynes-Creed – 46.26
  • David Witnall – 42.31
  • Cathy Steer – 38.61

Euro Globetrotters

• Total Miles – 800.8
• Top 3 runners – 
  • Ellie Taylor – 40.04
  • Henry Church – 35.27
  • Linda Edwards – 34.84

Overall Miles – 1639.66

It is not normal to mention virtual races on race reports but there are sometimes exceptions to the rules.

Cotswold Way Relay

The Cotswold Way Relay would have been in it’s 28th year this year and would have taken place on Saturday 4th July. Due to the Coronavirus the event this year was cancelled. For those not aware of this event, the Cotswold Way is split into 10 legs. Each leg is run by a member of a team of 10 with the total running time of the team being the final team result.

Hope 24

Hope 24 is a special event located on a private estate in Plympton. The event would have taken place over Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th July however this was also cancelled this year. This event provides a friendly atmosphere for runners to get together and challenge themselves to achieve their own targets. Based on a 5-mile trail course in this stunning estate, the event was open to solo runners or teams of 2-8, over a 24 hour period.

As you will see these events would have taken place on the same day this year. This would have caused a few issues as both events are well supported by RSE with some runners taking part in both events as they are normally held on different days.

One of our members was planning to take place in both events. This would have meant completing their leg of the Cotswold Way, driving down to Plympton and then taking part in Hope 24 at the same time as celebrating their birthday. To get over the disappointment of missing out on that Nadine Brown decided she would run 100k starting at 6am on Saturday 4th. She completed this distance at 10,45 pm. A great effort Nadine, well done.

Two other runners who were planning on taking part in Hope 24 decided they would run as far as they could between 12pm on Saturday and 12pm on Sunday which is the time Hope 24 takes place.

Gareth Roberts chose a 6 mile route from his home address and managed to complete 83 miles.

Elaine Chapman chose a variety of routes around Cirencester and although her aim was to complete 40 miles (a number which had nothing to do with age at all!!!!) managed to complete 65 miles.

A fantastic effort from both of you.

Dave Witnall also decided to do a virtual Hope 24 running mainly as support for Elaine and Gareth and completed 55 miles. Great effort Dave.

One of the great things about this weekend was the amount of support that was provided by members of the club to Elaine, Gareth and Nadine. I know they were all thankful and it made what is a very difficult challenge a little bit easier. Gareth will need to run another 83 miles just to run off the calories he will consume when he tries to finish the cakes that were donated to him.