TEST WAY 2004
I am always amazed at the way the runners arrive at the handover checkpoints; some arrive covered in mud, some 
covered in cuts and bruises, some people looking exhausted, some looking fed up (probably caused by getting lost and 
there always a few) and a very few have the amazing ability to run hard for six miles and still look as fresh as a daisy! 
This year was no exception.  

We had 26 teams turn out for this year's Test Way Relays. 13 teams (5 mixed, 8 ladies) started out at 11 am and the 13 
mens teams got under away at noon. One new club joined the fray this year, welcome to Halterworth.  One major 
change to the course this year was that the official Test Way route has now been altered on Leg 4 to take the path over 
the road bridge.  It does not appear to have changed the length of Leg 4.

Only one record was broken this year: Southampton RC Ladies Team, who led from start to finish, crossed the finish 
line at the Salmon Leap in 5hrs 21 minutes, a whopping 13 minutes faster than the record they set last year. 
Surprisingly no leg records were broken by SRC during their run, it just shows what consistency and not getting lost is 
all about. Second in this race were Hardley, 21 minutes behind, who overtook Winchester on the last leg, who finished a 
further 10 minutes down

The Mens race was initially led by Southampton RC and were then overtaken by Stubbington Green A. on leg 2 
Stubbington built up a lead of over 3 minutes only to be overtaken by SRC at the end of leg 6. SRC went on to win the 
race by 5 minutes from Stubbington and third were Winchester just a minute further back. SRC's time of 4hrs 31minutes 
was some 16 minutes outside the record set in 1996 by Southampton City.

A storming final leg run by Sean Driscoll brought success for Totton in the Mixed race, pushing the previous leaders 
Lordshill back into second place by 3 minutes. Team Southampton (the new name for Team Solent & Southampton 
City) were in third place a further 7 minutes behind.
  
The route of Test Way footpath is shown on OS Explorer 131 (Leg 1), OS Explorer (Legs 2 to 7) and OS OL 22 (Leg 8), 
it is expected that all runners will follow the route shown.  Deviating from the recognized route rather defeats the object 
of the race and leads to a lot of bad feeling amongst fellow runners. This is meant to be a good day out!

If you spot any obvious errors in the results please contact Andy Suswain (e-mail: andy@suswain.freeserve.co.uk).
Thank you to all the clubs that helped with timekeeping and scribing at the changeovers, this makes compilation of the 
results a much easier task. Apologies if your name is incorrectly recorded in the results. In the results the leg times 
listed maybe slightly different from those you recorded, this is caused by matching up overall cumulative times to the leg 
times. I have had to adjust some of the times where runners have started before their incoming runner has arrived.
The full results can also be found on RR10 website: www.rrI0.freeserve.co.uk
Thank you for your co-operation with the use of transport at the changeovers, we were not aware of getting any 
complaints from the public about blocking roads etc.
The date of next year's race has yet to be finalised; this is to ensure that there is not a clash of events. We will confirm 
the date in May next year. We look forward to seeing you next year.




Ray Noke				Andy Suswain