2019 Banbury 5

2019 Banbury 5

Today, in my series entitled "where I was taking photos this time last year", I'm looking at the Banbury 5 which is a 5M road race using the roads in and around Banbury (which is about 25M North of Oxford).

The organiser's website says "The Banbury 5 uses a scenic one-lap course and it's part of the East Midlands Grand Prix Series". The Series consists of 8 midweek road races during May, June and July taking place at Silverstone, Rugby, Blisworth, Banbury, Corby, Harborough, Weedon and Milton Keynes. Last year's Banbury 5 took place on Tue Jun 4th 2019 and this year's race was to have taken place today (Tue Jun 2nd 2020). However, because of the corona virus it (and the other races in the Series) have been cancelled.

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

Before showing you photos of some runners who did well in last year's race, I'll first show a map of the race route and then some photos taken along the route.
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The above map is an extract of the full course map. That full course map is useful as it not only has the route of the race (marked in red) but it also has the walking route from the Race HQ to the start (marked in blue) and the walking route from the finish to the Race HQ (marked in green).

Photos of the race route

Now for some photos taken along the route. I've grabbed these photos from geograph and from Google Maps. The photos I'm using from geograph were taken by Dave Thompson, David P Howard and Nigel Cox. They are released with this Creative Commons Licence. Bear in mind that the photos from geograph and Google were taken several years ago. You can click on any of these photos to see where it comes from. Thanks to the photographers for these photos.

The race has an unusual start - it's in the middle of a housing estate. It takes Browning Road to leave the housing estate and then turns left onto ...

... Bloxham Road (the A361).

When Bloxham Road reaches its junction with Queensway, the race route turns left down Queensway. This is a dual carriageway with the two roads separated by a large grass area.

The race route then turns left to go up Broughton Road (the B4035) - there is a short sharp hill here - it's at the 1M marker.

Broughton Road leaves the houses behind and the runners may see Crouch Hill off to the left. The web page for Crouch Hill in Wikipedia says "Crouch Hill is a partly artificial - the top of the hill, which is a cone in shape, is the artificial part - Alfred Beesley concluded that the purpose of the hill was to form a signalling platform with other Saxon encampments in the area." It also says "At the foot of Crouch Hill used to run Banbury Lane, a road that followed the route of an old trackway passing Rollrich and Tadmarton through Banbury to Northampton. Crossing it used to be a road named Salt Way. It was around the junction of these two roads that Banbury town actually grew in the first place."

The above photo is taken further along Broughton Road.

At about the 2M marker, the Broughton Road crosses the Salt Way (which was mentioned earlier). This website says "the Salt Way may have formed part of a major trade route network from Droitwich to the south east - salt routes were used for transporting salt from the Iron Age, and throughout the Roman and medieval period".

The above photo has a view of part of the Salt Way near to Broughton Road.

Just before 3M, the race route reaches the village of Broughton. It comes along Broughton Road - from the left in the above photo - and then it turns left to go up Wykham Lane. There is a long hill here.

Further along Wykham Lane the route is in the midst of the countryside.

There's a slight dip on Wykham Lane at about the 3.6M point - it's shown in the above photo.

At the crossroads of Wykham Lane and Bloxham Road, the race route turns left to go along Bloxham Road (the A361) towards Banbury. From here to the finish, runners are asked to use the pavement. The above photo was taken at about 4M.

This is where the Salt Way crosses Bloxham Road.

This section of Bloxham Road was also used just after the start. There's a slight decline from here to the finish.

The race finishes in this cul-de-sac that's an offshoot of Bloxham Road (which is on the right-hand side of this photo).

Photos of the male runners who did well at the 2019 Banbury 5

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

Elisha de-Mello (715, Rugby_and_Northampton_AC) was 1st and the 1st SM finishing in a time of 26:04.

Alistair Smith (790, Coventry_Godiva_Harriers) was 2nd and the 2nd SM finishing in a time of 26:21.

Harvey Speed (212, Coventry_Godiva_Harriers) was 3rd and the 3rd SM finishing in a time of 26:24.

James Bolton (770, Woodstock_Harriers) was 6th and the 1st MV45 finishing in a time of 27:02.

Skip Snelson (697, Banbury_Harriers) was 7th and the 1st MJun finishing in a time of 27:06.

Daniel Williams (561, Rugby_and_Northampton_AC) was the 1st MV40 finishing in a time of 28:43.

Tony Letts (74, Northampton_RR) was the 1st MV50 finishing in a time of 28:44.

Andy Green (24, Team_East_Haddon) was the 1st MV55 finishing in a time of 29:58.

Dave Chandler (509, unattached) was the 1st MV60 finishing in a time of 32:20.

Dave Pettifer (264, Kenilworth_Runners) was the 1st MV70 finishing in a time of 36:02.

Charles Jones (276, Northbrook_AC) was the 1st MV65 finishing in a time of 39:43.

Allan Lock (462, Midland_Masters) was the 1st MV75 finishing in a time of 45:35.

Larry Corkery (150, Bedford_Harriers_AC) was the 1st MV80 finishing in a time of 48:57.

Photos of male runners from other running clubs

Here are some photos of the first male runner from running clubs other than those mentioned above. I've only included those clubs who had more than 6 runner competing. These photos are ordered by the name of the running club.

Dermot Martin (39, Bearbrook_RC) was the 5th MV40 finishing in a time of 30:03.

James Olliffe (712, Brackley_and_District_RC) was the 20th SM finishing in a time of 29:54.

Ali Herbert (84, Cherwell_Runners_and_Joggers) was the 10th SM finishing in a time of 28:05.

Daniel Clarke (125, Daventry_Road_Runners) was the 24th SM finishing in a time of 30:12.

Duncan Lawrence (780, Headington_RoadRunners) was 9th and the 7th SM finishing in a time of 27:53.

Paul Taylor (684, Hook_Norton_Harriers) was the 24th MV50 finishing in a time of 35:31.

Will Raybould (10, Human_Energy_AC) was the 15th MV45 finishing in a time of 33:16.

Matt Fowler (134, Kettering_Town_Harriers) was the 2nd MV40 finishing in a time of 28:58.

Steve Tuttle (471, Marshall_Milton_Keynes_AC) was 8th and the 6th SM finishing in a time of 27:42.

Lloyd Cross (20, Shenley_Striders) was the 16th SM finishing in a time of 29:20.

Andy Pacey (419, Silson_AC) was the 5th MV50 finishing in a time of 31:01.

Alexander Ash (759, Wellingborough_and_District_AC) was 5th and the 5th SM finishing in a time of 26:50.

Tony Lock (665, Witney_Road_Runners) was the 6th MV50 finishing in a time of 31:02.

Chris Lazenby (178, Wootton_Road_Runners) was the 14th SM finishing in a time of 29:15.

Photos of the female runners who did well at the 2019 Banbury 5

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

Frankie Snare (760, Witney_Road_Runners) was the 1st female and the 1st SL finishing in a time of 30:58.

Tia Williams (704, Banbury_Harriers) was the 2nd female and the 1st FJun finishing in a time of 33:05.

Sue Harrison (646, Leamington_C_and_AC) was the 3rd female and the 1st FV45 finishing in a time of 33:07.

Jenny Jeeves (749, Leamington_C_and_AC) was the 4th female and the 1st FV50 finishing in a time of 33:11.

Lisa-Marie Smith (469, Wellingborough_and_District_AC) was the 5th female and the 1st FV35 finishing in a time of 33:47.

Zoe Kemp (533, Human_Energy_AC) was the 7th female and the 1st FV40 finishing in a time of 34:00.

Clare Curnow (630, Cherwell_Runners_and_Joggers) was the 1st FV55 finishing in a time of 36:42.

Diane Baldwin (337, Marshall_Milton_Keynes_AC) was the 1st FV60 finishing in a time of 37:13.

Fi-han Bromilow (446, Marshall_Milton_Keynes_AC) was the 1st FV65 finishing in a time of 44:44.

Pauline Dable (14, Kenilworth_Runners) was the 1st FV70 finishing in a time of 48:58.

Photos of female runners from other running clubs

Here are some photos of the first female runner from running clubs other than those mentioned above. I've only included those clubs who had more than 6 runner competing. These photos are ordered by the name of the running club.

Lisa Jay (115, Bearbrook_RC) was the 4th FV35 finishing in a time of 35:23.

Nicola Crookes (541, Brackley_and_District_RC) was the 11th FV45 finishing in a time of 37:54.

Paige Hobbs (745, Daventry_Road_Runners) was the 4th SL finishing in a time of 35:05.

Yvonne Morris (705, Headington_RoadRunners) was the 6th FV45 finishing in a time of 35:48.

Nell Darby (631, Hook_Norton_Harriers) was the 8th FV45 finishing in a time of 37:00.

Elaine Fairbrother (146, Kettering_Town_Harriers) was the 5th FV45 finishing in a time of 35:46.

Charlotte Yarker (68, Northampton_RR) was the 10th female and the 2nd FV35 finishing in a time of 34:20.

Alison Cobb (75, Rugby_and_Northampton_AC) was the 3rd FV50 finishing in a time of 36:59.

Katie-Niamh Crawford (21, Shenley_Striders) was the 8th female and the 2nd SL finishing in a time of 34:04.

Helen Heley (414, Silson_AC) was the 6th female and the 2nd FV45 finishing in a time of 33:59.

Lucy Dunn (632, Woodstock_Harriers) was the 11th SL finishing in a time of 38:54.

Kairit Fitzgerald (120, Wootton_Road_Runners) was the 3rd FV35 finishing in a time of 35:21.

Postscript

If you did the Banbury 5 in 2019 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 web page.

If you want to see the reviews I've done on other races, then here's a link to a web page that includes an index of the reviews of races.

I'm planning for my next review to be of the 2019 Broadway Hill Charity Race. I'm hoping to post that tomorrow (Wed Jun 3rd 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

This web page is at www.oxonraces.com/blog/2020-06-02-banbury. It was created on May 28th 2020 and last updated on June 2nd 2020.