2019 White Horse Half Marathon

Information (e.g., entry forms, results and photos) for running races (e.g., 5K, 10K, 10M, half marathon), both road races and multi-terrain, that are in Oxfordshire, Berks and Bucks, parts of Glos, Hants, Northants and Wilts, ... Generated: Fri 10 Apr at 12:17:29 BST

2019 White Horse Half Marathon

This Sunday, in my series entitled "where I was taking photos this time last year", I'm looking at the 2019 White Horse Half Marathon. This race takes place to the North of Grove on country lanes. It's very rural and the hotspots (!) are its visits to the villages of Denchworth, Lyford and Charney Bassett. In years gone by, the organisers described the race as "flat and fast", the only hill on the course being the gradual ascent/descent to the bridge over the railway line between Didcot and Swindon.

The race is organised by White Horse Harriers. Their web page for the race has an interesting account of the history of the race. Besides other things, it mentions firefighters, tractors, cows, a flat tyre and a spectator being thumped! It also says that the race was first held in 1983. In a poll in Runners World back in 2008, the race was voted the 4th most PB-friendly British race.

You can't leave it to the last minute to enter as it usually fills well before the closing date: in 2019 it was full on February 3rd. I guess this is partly because this race is the only Half Marathon in the Oxfordshire AA Road Race Grand Prix.

After the race, the race director usually produces a report. The report on the 2019 race says "On a cool, overcast day in ideal running conditions, this year’s race was won by James Bolton (Woodstock Harriers AC) in a time of 1hr12mins16secs. He won by almost a minute to James Knight (Newbury AC) and Aaron Burgess (Oxford City AC). This is James Bolton’s 13th run in our race and his third victory. ... The women’s race was won for the third year in succession by Helen Mulhall (Bearbrook RC), in a time of 1hr24min23secs. This was another PB for Helen. The winning margin was just over a minute to Julie Fricke (u/a) and a further 4 minutes to Kate Allred (Eynsham RR)." Here's a link to the results of the race.

The highest placed runners in the Men's race

Here are photos of the first three runners to finish. By the way, you can click on any of the photos to see the photo in hi-res.

James Bolton (15, Woodstock_Harriers) was 1st and the 1st MV40 finishing in a chiptime of 1:12:14.

James Knight (597, Newbury_AC) was 2nd and the 2nd MV40 finishing in a chiptime of 1:13:02.

Aaron Burgess (501, Oxford_City_AC) was 3rd and the 1st SM finishing in a chiptime of 1:13:47.

And here are photos of the first runner in each of the men's vet categories.

David Cantwell (272, Woodstock_Harriers) was 22nd and the 1st MV50 finishing in a chiptime of 1:21:12.

John Griffiths (294, Headington_RoadRunners) was 76th and the 1st MV60 finishing in a chiptime of 1:29:16.

Phil Kimber (506, Headington_RoadRunners) was 247th and the 1st MV70 finishing in a chiptime of 1:46:56.

The highest placed runners in the Women's race

Here are some photos of the first three women to finish.

Helen Mulhall (608, Bearbrook_RC) was the 1st female and the 1st FV45 finishing in a chiptime of 1:24:20.

Julie Fricke (548, unattached) was the 2nd female and the 1st SM finishing in a chiptime of 1:25:47.

Kate Allred (406, Eynsham_Roadrunners) was the 3rd female and the 2nd FV45 finishing in a chiptime of 1:29:23.

And here are photos of the first runner in each of the other women's vet categories.

Tina Wise (533, Didcot_Runners) was the 4th female and the 1st FV35 finishing in a chiptime of 1:31:17.

Philomena Mburu (567, Compton_Harriers) was the 1st FV55 finishing in a chiptime of 1:43:34.

Kate Williamson (58, Eynsham_Roadrunners) was the 1st FV65 finishing in a chiptime of 1:47:00.

Some photos of the prizegiving

Helen Mulhall and James Bolton were the first female and male.

Witney Road Runners won the Men's team prize. The Women’s team prize was won by Headington RoadRunners (no photo).

Some photos of other runners that did well

Here are some photos of the highest place runners for other Oxfordshire clubs that finished in the top 10 of their age category.

Paul Fernandez (469, Abingdon_AC) was 9th and the 4th MV40 finishing in a chiptime of 1:17:14.

Victoria Richardson (154, Abingdon_AC) was the 4th SL finishing in a chiptime of 1:37:22.

David Basham (308, Alchester_RC) was the 2nd MV70 finishing in a chiptime of 1:54:20.

Chris Noble (285, Brackley_and_District_RC) was the 6th MV50 finishing in a chiptime of 1:25:22.

Clare Curnow (570, Cherwell_Runners_and_Joggers) was the 2nd FV55 finishing in a chiptime of 1:44:29.

Sally Cullen (450, Harwell_Harriers) was the 7th FV55 finishing in a chiptime of 1:59:58.

Helen Turley (210, Headington_RoadRunners) was the 2nd FV65 finishing in a chiptime of 1:48:25.

Andrea Finnigan (194, Kidlington_RC) was the 9th FV35 finishing in a chiptime of 1:41:01.

Zoe Illingworth (660, Swindon_Striders) was the 8th FV45 finishing in a chiptime of 1:41:19.

Ruth Fisher (289, White_Horse_Harriers) was the 6th female and the 2nd FV35 finishing in a chiptime of 1:32:35.

Sam Upton (207, Witney_Road_Runners) was 5th and the 3rd SM finishing in a chiptime of 1:14:53.

Tony Lock (268, Witney_Road_Runners) was the 3rd MV50 finishing in a chiptime of 1:23:34.

Graham Le-Good (336, Witney_Road_Runners) was the 3rd MV60 finishing in a chiptime of 1:40:35.

Judith Le-Good (337, Witney_Road_Runners) was the 3rd FV65 finishing in a chiptime of 1:59:29.

Unattached runners who finished in the top 3 in their age category

The results have four unattached runners who finished in the top 3 in their age category. However, one of them runs for a club. The other three are Julie Fricke, Katy Young and Jane Bell. Above there's a photo of Julie Fricke because she was the 2nd female. So ...

Katy Young (19, unattached) was the 5th female and the 2nd SL finishing in a chiptime of 1:31:41.

Jane Bell (178, unattached) was the 3rd FV55 finishing in a chiptime of 1:49:05.

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.

Here's a link to the report about the race that appeared in the Oxford Mail.

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. Which race will I look at next Sunday? Well, next Sunday is Easter Sunday. And I don't usually take photos at Easter because I'm away for the Easter weeks. With a crowded diary for the weeks ahead in 2019, next week I'll take one of the races out of order and see who did well at that race in 2019.

Metadata

This web page is at www.oxonraces.com/blog/2020-04-05-grove-wantage. It was created on 5th April 2020 and last updated on 19th 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