Race report by Sam Harper
The hottest day of the year may not have been the best time to have the 2026 running of the Uphill time trial and did account for a few people pulling out on the day but there were still 25 runners prepared to run up the 2.3km of 160m climb at High Vinnals.
This has been a stallwart of the Croft Calender since 2018 when Mark Paviour and Susan came up with a challenging hill time trial that was suitable for all runners in the club – from juniors, beginners and experience runners – to take part in to challenge themselves on their uphill running.
Sadly Susan is no longer with us but her memory lives on in the club and it is only fitting that from now on this time trial will be remembered in her honour.
Having been run as a race for the last few years, we welcomed Mark back to revert it back to the time trial that it was always supposed to be – he has also donated a fabulous trophy – crafted by club member Dawn Hargadon – which will be awarded in a couple of weeks time to the age graded adusted winner when some number crunching has been completed.
On the night runners were sorted into pairs and set off at one minute intervals.
The route starts at the bottom of a track after turning left where the Mortimer Forest Parkrun route turns right at the marshal point to head towards dip of doom. It is a continual uphill stretch, with switchbacks and very little reprieve before finishing at the viewing point at the summit of high Vinnalls, where the cheering of fellow club members and the stunning view almost make the challenge of the uphill stretch worthwhile.
As the overall winner can’t be announced until the complicated maths is complete – the trophy will be awarded in September at the last of the Bircher handicap races – there were some spot prizes of a running hat awarded to Jamie, Natalie and Simon.
There were PBs for Joe Lynch, Sam Harper, Mike Bending, Natalie Covil, Steph King and a few course records broken – Nigel for the MV60, Simon MV55, Sam H FV50, and Janet with her Debut run taking the FV70 record.
Huge thank you to Mark for organising everything and Clare for organising the volunteers. Tim W-H and Mike B were on the route shouting encouragement and taking photos – always good to see both.
We all now wait to find out the winner on Sept 1st!
