September 4th 2021 – Cotswold Classic 10 Mile
Rachel Bannister provided this report of this popular Oxfordshire race…
The Cotswold Classic is a 10 mile undulating road race around the country lanes near Witney, Oxfordshire. A super well organised event with the added bonus of a long sleeved technical t-shirt at the finish, a different colour every year. For us, it was also a chance to catch up with familiar faces on some of our old running stomping ground. Despite best intentions of an early start, we almost didn’t make it as we missed our alarm and didn’t wake up until well after when we should have been in the car and on our way. But with David throwing me out as we passed registration to grab the numbers while he dumped the car, we managed to get to the start line with a whopping 3 minutes to spare.
With 100 marshals on the course, and locals cheering on outside their houses, the support was fantastic. The ‘highlight’ of the race is Hillzakilla which is a short, steep incline followed by a very long drag … one of those hills that just keeps on giving. No cuppa, no breakfast and no warm up is obviously the way forward as David finished 9th overall, and I bagged myself a course PB. With free beer at the finish (for anyone who could stomach a post race beer at that time of the morning) and cakes (for anyone who didn’t run out their house forgetting to take some cash), this race is definitely worth a go next year if you fancy a road trip.