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Wells event

Urban & woodland

Published: Sat 16 Dec 2017

A novel offering from Bristol OK - two forest-based courses and two urban courses - attracted 16 members and JOGgers to north Somerset to what was the last race to be held locally before Christmas

Results, Routegadget

The hardest and the easiest two courses (Green and Yellow) were both in the forest, while the middle two courses (Light Green and Orange) were round the streets.

About a quarter of the competitors on Green were members or from JOG. Tony Hext has local bragging rights- but only just! He was the top QO on the day - but only by 6s over Matt Carter. Yet Matt was 3s ahead of Tony going into the 75m sprint to the finish. Does this highlight a difference in approach some folks take to the final leg?

Robert Green was another couple of minutes behind Matt. Taking just over 50 minutes each, all three they might well marvel at the winner Michael Hallett's time of 25 minutes.

JOG's Marson family acquitted themselves well at their first senior event. The Cudmores and Martin Lewis also ran Green.


Sam (R) at the BOK Blast in June, with dad Pete and urban fan Andrew (L)

Sam (R) at the BOK Blast in June, with dad Pete and urban fan Andrew (L)
Credit: VP

Graham Hartley, winner on the Green course in Bristol OK's summer urban series, did the longer urban course (Light Green) but was up against a UK top 200 runner in Owain Jones. Not even the Bristol OK man running the Green course beforehand, albeit with a 40 minute breather in between his runs, helped the others. Jones was still 8 minutes ahead of Graham and Bristol OK's Nick Dennis. Nick got ahead of Graham for the first time at the last-but-one control to finish runner-up, just 8s ahead of the QO man.

Up against a dozen others including his brother Jacob and Dawn Carter, Sam Shirvington was runner-up on the Orange course. Just 90s behind the winner, Sam won several of his legs and held the lead temporarily a third of the way through the race.

On Yellow, the Carter girls, Annabel and Chloe collaborated on a course which took in both woods and open areas. See the illustration from Routegadget, showing the girls' course plus the Orange course which started and finished through the houses (shown with dark green gardens) to the north.