Hardley Runners - RR10 Race 9 Wednesday 6th August 2025 – Cadland Estate, Blackfield, Start Time 7:00pm

Dear All, Hardley Runners & New Forest Runners are pleased to invite you to our RR10 event. Please see below for further details:

Date of Event: Wednesday 6 th August 2025, 7pm prompt 

Location: Queen Elizabeth II Recreation Ground, Thornbury Ave, Blackfield, SO45 1YQ W3W ///wizards.finalists.mothering

Car Parking: As ever, we expect parking to be tight, so please car share where possible. Please do not arrive before 5.40pm as the gate will not be open. Drive around to the left as you enter the recreation ground and continue onto the field and park as directed by marshals. There may be children football training on the adjacent field, keep your speed dead slow. Please be aware QE2 Rec is in a residential area.

The Course: One lap of approximately 4.5 miles (7.2km). We recommend trail shoes; the course is mainly dry and on gravel & grassy tracks, with ruts and roots and one or two sticky spots of mud. The course remains the same as 2024. Please be aware of the footbridge and two kissing gates towards the middle of the course, enter these in single file and take care as you do!

Traffic: Please allow plenty of time to arrive - the A326 will be busy with traffic in the evening.

Water: As usual, please bring your own drinks for refreshments; further drinking water is available from QE2 Rec Ground Centre.

Cakes: It’s why we all turn up isn’t it? 😊 We hope to have some treats in store with some vegan options.

Other Info: We do not have sole access to the grounds, which are popular with dog walkers, cyclists, horse riders and other users, so please be considerate to the local residents; our agreement with the landowner depends on not upsetting our community. Please be aware there are cattle grazing next to the course on Badminston Common (they are behind a fence!) but there are also tenants with a small number of free-roaming New Forest ponies on the land which you could meet on the course…. If necessary please slow down and give them space – they’re likely to be bigger than you! We’d also ask you to respect all runners and not run any cool down runs on the final loop of the course please. Toilets: A small number of toilets can be found in the QE2 Rec Ground Centre. Please factor a queue into your arrival time! 

The Start: Please pitch club tents/ flags in the top corner of the field. The start is off the field through a gate, it will take some time for everyone to file through to the start so again allow time for this! Any further questions, please let us know. We look forward to seeing you all next week! Tamsin (Hardley Runners)

Just a quick update on the course for Wednesday - I'd be really grateful if you could pre-warn your runners and I will mention in the run briefing too.

We had some torrential downpours on Thursday early evening which caused some problems with flash flooding in the area. On a course check today there are now some very badly eroded channels that have been created on a couple of the hilly sections of the course. In addition to the channels, material has been washed around and we have one steep downhill that has loose material and is soft underfoot.  Marshals will be in place to warn runners, and we'd ask runners to follow instructions carefully out on the course to avoid any issues and to select appropriate shoes for the evening.

Looking forward to seeing many of you on Weds,

Tamsin

Hardley RR10 Captain