2019 Commonweal 5

2019 Commonweal 5

This Sunday, in my series entitled "where I was taking photos this time last year", I'm looking at the 2019 Commonweal 5. It starts at Commonweal School which is in Swindon's Old Town. It's about 32M from Oxford.

The organiser's website has this brief summary of the race route: "starting (and finishing) on the school playing field, the route of the Commonweal 5 descends along paths from Old Town onto the Old Town Railway Path, to a flat middle section along by the Waitrose supermarket and the lakes and canal at Wichelstowe - but this scenic course has a sting in its tail...! because the final section of the route involves a steady climb back up to Old Town." Last year's Commonweal 5 took place on Sun May 12th. They had planned for it to take place this year on Sun May 3rd but that has been cancelled - it may be arranged for later in the year. I've taken photos at this race in each of the last six years, i.e., in each of the years 2014-19. So it's another favourite of mine.

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

The above map shows the organiser's map for the route of the race. It's run in an anti-clockwise direction starting/finishing from the School which is at the top right of the map. The straight bit that goes diagonally between top left and middle right of the map is the disused railway path. As you can see, it's used from about 0.9M until about 1.6M and again from about 3.8M until about 4.2M.

Above you can see the area of the race this time in Google Maps. As you can see, most of the race is in the countryside.

On the races's Facebook page, I came across this 3m17s long video of the 2017 race. The race starts (on the field at the School) at about 1m26s into the video. It shows the disused railway path from about 1m38s onwards; the section that passes Waitrose from about 1m50s onwards and the second section along the disused railway path from about 2m5s onwards. And then at 2m13s it's back on the field for the finish.

The history of the disused railway path

The disused railway path was once part of the Midland and South West Junction Railway. Wikipedia says "It opened to the public on 27th July 1881. It was part of a route linking Cheltenham and Southampton going via Cirencester, Swindon, Marlborough, Andover and Romsey. It was closed to passenger trtaffic on 9th September 1961 but remained open to freight until 7th September 1964. It got used for carrying stone for the construction of the M4 Motorway in the 1970s. The final revenue working was an enthusiasts' railtour in 1972. By 1978 all the track had been lifted."

This 2m37s long video shows a train travelling West out of Swindon's current station along the main railway line towards Bristol, across the Wootton Bassett Road before joining the "loop", the railway line that goes East to the station that was in Swindon's Old Town. I think the bit of the video from 42s (where the train is said to cross the Berks and Wilts Canal) to 1m42s where it is near Belmont Crescent is all along the race route. The video proudly shows the Princess Margaret Hospital which was visible from the railway. It was opened in 1959/1966 but was closed in 2002, demolished in 2004 and replaced by housing.

According to this report, "it was back in 1980 that the disused railway line was saved from development by Swindon bike group who offered to construct a path for walking and cycling." The report also says that in the mid 1990s five stone wheels were placed alongside the disused railway path. "From the Old Town direction towards the Wootton Bassett Road, the five wheels are titled Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Conceive. Each wheel has two parts, a small wheel showing the Element, and a large wheel with a short piece of poetry. In addition, there is a sleeper crossing the path between each of the wheel pairs. Each of these lengths of wood has two words written on them". The positions of the five wheels are shown on this web page.

The disused railway path forms path of the National Cycle Network - it is NCN45 which goes from Chester to Salisbury.

The race route's encounters with the Berks and Wilts Canal

En route, the race has three encounters with the Berks and Wilts Canal. Wikipedia says this Canal was formed to "link the Kennet and Avon Canal to the River Thames at Abingdon; it was opened in 1810; it was abandoned in 1914; the Berks and Wilts Canal Trust was formed in 1977 with a view to full restoration of the Canal and over 8M of the Canal have since been rewatered". Several of these stretches of water are in the Swindon area.

The race route meanders around Peglars Way crossing the Canal again just before Waitrose - it's shown in the above Google Map. This is at about 2.5M into the race. Waitrose is the building that appears at the bottom right of the map. On the left, this map also shows one of the silly road junctions on Peglars Way - it's silly because the junction has a road that goes nowhere. There are several like this along this bit of the race route.

The race route goes from West to East along the East Wichel Way which is shown along the top of the above Google map. It then goes South to circumnavigate the right most lake of the three lakes shown on the map before returning to East Wichel Way. At the bottom of this circumnavigation, the route has its third close encounter with the Berks and Wilts Canal as it runs alongside the Canal for a short distance. This is at about 3.1M into the race.

The path alongside the lake and the alongside the Canal are shown in this photo (which is another one nicked from the race's web page about the course).

Photos of the Male runners who did well at the 2019 Commonweal 5

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

Simon Byrne (Swindon_Harriers) was 1st and the 1st SM finishing in a time of 0:27:28.

Gary O'Brien (Swindon_Harriers) was 2nd and the 1st MV45 finishing in a time of 0:28:06.

Michael Passmore (Highworth_RC) was 3rd and the 1st MV35 finishing in a time of 0:28:46.

Stephen Goulding (Swindon_Shin_Splints) was the 1st MV55 finishing in a time of 0:33:22.

Photos of the Female runners who did well at the 2019 Commonweal 5

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

Catie O'Donoghue (Bristol_and_West_AC) was the 1st female and the 1st SL finishing in a time of 0:31:51.
Although she's running in the vest of Swindon_Shin_Splints, I think Catie is first claim for Bristol_and_West_AC.

Geri Taylor (Swindon_Striders) was the 2nd female and the 1st FV35 finishing in a time of 0:33:54.

Charlotte Olver (Highworth_RC) was the 3rd female and the 2nd SL finishing in a time of 0:36:12.

Eleanor Taylor (Highworth_RC) was the 1st FV45 finishing in a time of 0:42:45.

Diana Yeoell (unattached) was the 1st FV55 finishing in a time of 0:42:49.
As the results do not have bib numbers, I don't know which photos are those of Diana.

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.

Eddy Bamber (Slinn_Allstars) was the 4th MV55 finishing in a time of 0:38:03.

Mason Collings (Royal_Wootton_Bassett_Hounds_RC) was the 2nd MU18 finishing in a time of 0:43:09.

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.

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.

Next week I'm planning to look at the 2019 Run the Claydons race. The venue is Botolph Claydon, a small village in South Buckinghamshire that is about 7M due North of Waddesdon Manor. It's about 40M from Oxford. "The Run the Claydons is a 7M multi-terrain run that uses pavements, footpaths, tracks, lanes and fields of the Claydon villages and the Claydon Estate."

Metadata

This web page is at www.oxonraces.com/blog/2020-05-03-swindon. It was created on 15th 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