August Reminders

Howdy Ranelights.

We hope you’re all enjoying the summer, however you’re spending your time - whether with families and/or friends, whether abroad or closer to home, whether being active or instead choosing to take the time to reset and rest.

There’s a few more weeks of the holidays yet before September comes round to herald the opening of our 2025/2026 season - with our traditional opening fixture, the Thomas Cup Handicap on 6 September.

This event marks the start of our club’s 144th season - a reminder that while we continue to shape our club’s present in preparation for the future; our heritage remains the crucial foundation that underpins everything, including our identity, belonging and connection to the past.


1. Thomas Cup Presentation

This season’s Thomas Cup is a special one; providing the opportunity to acknowledge those that came before us. We have invited several club stalwarts who have greatly contributed to Ranelagh Harriers over the years, to be recognised at this event.

The schedule for the day is as follows, but we really hope to see as many members as possible at the Ranelagh Clubhouse from 14:45 to be included in the club photograph, and particularly for the special awards presentation afterwards from 15:30:

  • 13:30: Thomas Cup Handicap starts at Sidmouth Wood

  • 14:30: Race ends and runners return to the Ranelagh clubhouse for a BBQ* and celebration event

  • 14:45 to 15:15: Annual club photograph in the clubhouse garden.

  • 15:30: Mayor of Richmond arrives

  • 15:45: Award presentation by the Mayor, Ranelagh President and the Ranelagh Men’s and Women’s Captains

We’d therefore like to urge ALL members, young and old, new and not-so-new, to join us on 6 September; irrespective of whether you’d like to run or not, to ensure a good turnout.

*If you would like to partake of the BBQ, please complete this form @ https://forms.gle/3rQfdFscMPRAWiKC9 for each person attending, then transfer £15 with your name + THOMAS as the reference to:

Name: Ranelagh Harriers
Sort Code: 40-23-29
Account: 81109847

The £15 will cover the cost of the food and give you 2 drinks. FYI children under 14 eat & drink for free. 

For all questions or queries, please email coordinator@ranelagh-harriers.co.uk ⬅️


2. fixtures

▪️Thomas Cup Handicap | Saturday 6 Sept | Richmond Park @ 1.30pm: Entries are open for our traditional opening cross-country fixture. Prizes will be awarded to the first 3 finishers, the 3 fastest open and the 3 fastest women. The first person across the line (non-guest) will take home the Thomas Cup, an ornate trophy originally won by Sid Thomas on 23rd May 1889 in a 10 mile race at Old Trafford Manchester against arch-rival Will Parry of Salford Harriers. Details & entry @ https://forms.gle/k4kYXWpBRc3oRYUa9 ⬅️

▪️Middlesex Road Relays | Sunday 14 Sept | Hayes @ 3pm: 3km per leg for teams of 3. All abilities welcome - if you would like to take part, please contact your captains via ranelagh.men@gmail.com or ranelagh.women@gmail.com

▪️Page Cup Handicap | Saturday 20 Sept | Richmond Park @ 3pm: No, it’s not déjà vu - the Page Cup was held earlier this year in February but that was the ‘postponed’ 2024 fixture. We’re back on track now (amazing, we know) and making hay while the sun shines; or more specifically getting our event licences in order. Entries will open very soon for our traditional 2nd XC handicap fixture; 5 miles/8km to vie for the one of our club’s oldest trophies. For now, please just save the date.

Looking ahead to the 2025/2026 season, the following fixtures are confirmed(ish) - pending licence applications:

▪️Surrey Clubs Relays | Saturday 27 September | Nonsuch Park
▪️Surrey XC League #1 | Saturday 11 October | Div 1 Oxted Holland Sports | Div 2 Richmond Park
▪️SEAA XC Relays | Sunday 18 October | Wormwood Scrubs
▪️Surrey Masters XC Champs | Saturday 25 October | Nonsuch Park


3. Volunteering

There’s been a significant growth in participation in running events, meaning that now more so than ever before, the role of volunteers has become more crucial in ensuring the success of any event.

Without volunteers, fulfilling essential roles like course marshalling, water station management, registration, finish line support etc, many events would simply be unable to proceed safely, and sadly in some cases, cease to exist altogether.

Please fill in this form @ https://forms.gle/Ph6UXjqKsDiZFGhX9 ⬅️ if you can volunteer at any of the following:

  1. Thomas Cup Handicap | Saturday 6 September from 1pm | Richmond Park

  2. Page Cup Handicap | Saturday 20 September from 3pm | Richmond Park

  3. Richmond Runfest Marathon | Sunday 14 September | Water station & marshal section in Richmond

We also need as many members as possible to help out on Saturday 11 October when our club will host the first match of Division 2 of the 2025/2026 Surrey XC League in Richmond Park.

We are being supported by The Stragglers AC but your help is crucial in ensuring a successful event that is reflective of our club’s organising experience. Even if you’re running on the day, there will be roles that you can do after your race.

To volunteer for the Surrey League, please fill in the form @ https://forms.gle/LGKVfLAAEaRtzvmo9 ⬅️ as soon as you can. Thank you.

Lastly, we’d be grateful if you could please also save the following dates in your volunteering diary:

  1. Cabbage Patch 10 | Sunday 19 October (water station)

  2. Mob Match vs Thames Hare & Hounds | Saturday 22 November (Richmond Park)

  3. Ranelagh Half Marathon | Sunday 10 May 2026

  4. Ranelagh 10K | Sunday 21 June 2026


4. RACE REPORTs

🚺 Ratchford Relay | Tuesday 5 August @ Richmond Park

Devised in 1998 by former club president Frances Ratchford as a ‘summer event for women’, the Ratchford Relay is one of the much loved social highlights of our club’s event calendar.

Traditionally signalling an end to the season’s fixtures, the format features teams of three: a ‘fast’, ‘medium’ and an ‘improving’ runner, respectively running three, two & one lap of approx. 1km each, with great emphasis on it being a fun, rather than competitive, event.

We welcome this race report from Aoife Kilpatrick, Women’s Captain:

It was a glorious evening in Richmond Park for this year’s Ratchford Relays, an annual event dedicated to female runners and juniors, blending friendly competition with a wonderfully supportive atmosphere.

A total of 21 participants took on the challenge of completing 1, 2, or 3 laps of the 1km route, including two of our juniors, Felix Gould and Maisy Fowler.

The winning team, Sarah Carnwath, Carol Aikin, and Marilyn Nelson, crossed the finish line with a 12-second lead over the second-place trio: Aoife Kilpatrick, Edel McKeever, and Sara Simon. Just 30 seconds behind them, Claire Warner, Clare Fowler, and Solene Pezot secured a well-earned third place.

It was especially heartening to see Edel and Clare F. back in action after recovering from long-term injuries.

Huge thanks to everyone involved in organising the event, and to Frances Ratchford for keeping this special tradition alive- and for providing the very cool pink Balega socks for the winning team (we’re all a little envious!).

Well done to all who took part! Little Maisy summed up the spirit of the evening perfectly, saying there should be “way more female/junior events”- and we couldn’t agree more.

▪️Results: Ratchford Relay 2025 (PDF) >

Image credit: Aoife Kilpatrick

😎 Sunset Sprint 3K trial event | Tuesday 12 August @ Ham Avenues

Once again a HUGE thank you to everyone who was involved - whether running or volunteering - in the Sunset Sprint test event. To help us learn more, we'd be grateful if you could please take a couple of minutes to fill in the feedback form @ https://forms.gle/VgrvQuD918YmmwMP7 ⬅️

Full results are available @ https://ranelagh-harriers.co.uk/sunset-feedback ⬅️


5. Scottish Conquest

Huge congratulations and shout out to James Ritchie, who went through the mill and out the other side on his 215-mile ultra-marathonRace Across Scotland’.

Following one of Scotland 's great trails – The Southern Upland Way - James finished an astonishing 14th out of 92 finishers. Ably supported by Suzy Whatmough, we’ve stolen the following round up from his Strava account:

First off a massive thank you to Suzy on support. I couldn't have done it without you. And thank you also to the checkpoint crew at CP5 who refused to accept my DNF until I'd slept and eaten, and then with Suzy cajoled and bullied me back out the door.

Legs 1 and 2 went ok. Leg 3 was a bit hot and slow, but leg 4 was better after beans on toast / cheese on toast combo at Glentrool. Macaroni, 1.5h kip, then out onto leg 5 at about 1am. I had this down for <7h but couldn't run, felt awful, slogged it out in 11, having decided that I was DNFing for the majority of that.

Leg 6, after being kicked out the door, was short and not too bad, more kip there and out onto leg 7 in the rain as we headed into Sunday night. Found I could actuallly run again on the downhills! More kip and drying out, then out onto leg 8. Got chatting on the lengthy road section to Boston and was told that Tuesday was going to be very hot. Short sleep then on to stage 9. By now my tongue was heavily ulcerated and eating was becoming more painful. About 10 minutes sleep there and on to leg 10 at Galashiels - with the fab Sharon Dyson in attendence. Lots of mince and tatties and out into the rainy night. At some point heading back along the River Tweed I felt amazing and started running at a (relative to much of this) blistering pace! Went past a handful of people, then fog to contend with into CP 11. By now I couldn't eat anything solid and hot drinks were painful. Maybe 15 minutes of sleep and a bit of faffing (couldn't get spare headtorch battery to work) and then out at 3am.

Very humid, still foggy, with a white sun eventually appeating in the mist, and on towards the final CP. In there for all of 5 minutes to down half a can of fruit salad, and out onto the final leg of just under 35km. Tore along the road for the next 4km or so, to meet Suzy, and switched to a diet of chocolate milk and canned fruit for the remainder. By 10am it was incredibly hot as I bimbled across open fields - and the chocolate milk strategy backfired as I had nothing to tip over myself - thankfully half an hour later as I was getting water to soak myself out of a (slightly manky) cattle trough a couple of locals saw me and gave me a bottle of water. Slowly onwards, over the A1 and final hills and to the coast, before having to turn back inland to Cockburnspath and the end.

An amazing event. Brilliant checkpoint teams, lovely fellow racers and supporters. One that I won't forget for a while!

Well done James. Utterly amazing effort. We can’t wait to see what’s next.

Image credit: James Ritchie (from Strava)


6. Original Marathon

Original Marathon https://www.originalmarathon.com/ is London’s newest, oldest marathon – following the historic 1908 Olympic route from Windsor to White City. Their next event is Saturday 7 March 2026.

Remaining entries are going to ballot due to high demand BUT as a local club, we’ve been offered 1 guaranteed place.

If you're interested, please send your full name + email to ranelagh.women@gmail.com by 27 Aug. We will nominate one person to be put forward, and they will get an invite to register by 14 Sept. Please note entry costs are not discounted.

You can also choose to enter the ballot, which closes on 30 Sept 2025. Please get in touch ASAP if you want the spot!


7. TRAINING

A reminder that for Tuesdays’ sessions, please meet at our clubhouse for 7pm; and for Thursdays’ track, please meet at Osterley Park track for 7.30pm.

The warm weather continues so please remember to dress appropriately (keep cool), to stay hydrated before, during and after all your runs and training sessions (but also don’t drink too much!), and to allow plenty of time for your body to adjust and aclimatise.

Do check in on each other, especially as the heat and humidity increases and if you feel faint, dizzy or not well, please slow down or stop running. Also, please take the appropriate precautions by covering legs, wearing insect repellent and checking for ticks after running in the park.

Detailed info can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/642bec29fbe620000f17dbbe/Tick-awareness-A5-leaflet-April-2023.pdf ⬅️


8. CLUB SUBS

An ongoing reminder, if you haven’t already, to please renew your subs for 2025/2026 as soon as possible using the account details below:

  • Beneficiary Bank: HSBC

  • Sort code: 40-23-29

  • Account Number: 81109847

  • Account Name: Ranelagh Harriers

For any other methods of payment, please go to www.ranelagh-harriers.co.uk/join-info.

Where applicable, your payment includes registration with England Athletics, which will allow you to represent our club in official races. You will also receive a £2 discount on most other race entries, plus other benefits and discounts as offered by England Athletics.

Once you have paid your subs, we will register you with them. Should you have any queries regarding renewing your membership, please email the Membership Secretary.

NOTE: By paying your subs, you agree go to the England Athletics site, to accept and abide by the relevant codes of conduct relating to your role(s) within the club.


9. NOTICES

💙 Race opportunity: Entries are open for the Bob Lewis Memorial Meeting @ Weir Archer Athletics Track, Kingston on 31st August. Organised by Momentum Sports, with plenty of prizes for all age groups (U13 to Masters) for track events over a variety of distances, including Mile and 3000m races. Enter @ https://data.opentrack.run/en-gb/x/2025/GBR/ms/ ⬅️

💛 London marathon charity place: Doctors of the World - an international humanitarian charity providing medical care to those most in need across the globe - have 20 charity spots available for the 2026 London Marathon. In return for the chance to run with them, they’re asking for support in raising awareness and fundraising for their mission to provide essential healthcare to vulnerable communities. Applications can be made here >

💙 Club Kit: If you’ve recently ordered kit but haven’t collected it yet, please message Agnes N, our Kit Secretary via WhatsApp Community, or send an email via coordinator@ranelagh-harriers.co.uk ⬅️

💛 Share: Your running or running related celebrations & achievements in our ‘General Club Chat’ group. Please contact Ed or Narissa via WhatsAppCommunity to be added. We love seeing what you get up to!

Next
Next

Thomas Cup Handicap