Recently, Newport & District Running Club took on the “T50 Relay Challenge”, a “time trial” style event where teams of runners and/or walkers complete the whole Telford T50 50-mile trail as a relay team. When done as part of the official event, a team’s attempt can be done at any time in April, May or June, and NDRC chose Sunday 7th June for their 2026 attempt. Club member Daniel Campbell-Miles organised the team, and did a great job of keeping everyone informed and organised!
Made up of 20 sections, the T50 Trail starts and finishes in Telford Town Park, and follows a circular clockwise route, initially heading south towards Ironbridge, before moving west, including a summit of the Wrekin, before skirting around to the north and east of the Telford including a summit of Lilleshall Hill, before returning to the start via Priorslee. NDRC’s team completed the 50 miles in just under 9 hours, and encountered other teams making their attempts on the same day, including Coronation Walkers, who set off at 6am, and Broseley Joggers, who started at 8am, the same time as Newport.
Leg 1 was taken by Heather Campbell-Miles, accompanied by Aaron Nicholas, who took leg 2 by himself, and who then also accompanied Daniel Campbell-Miles on leg 3. Legs 4-6 were taken by father and son team Andy and Harry Wilmot, before handing over to Neil Fairbrother, who did the Wrekin climb on leg 7. Jennie Waters took legs 8 & 9, including the Wrekin descent and Ercall summit, before John Stokes and Wendy Tonge took on legs 10 & 11 together. They handed over to David Thomas for legs 12 & 13, followed by David Brown on leg 14. Oliver Stokes completed legs 15 & 16, handing over to Jo Lutner, who summited Lilleshall Hill for leg 17, then Kay Wilkinson Smith and John Metzger did legs 18 & 19 together. Club secretary Annabel Bolton brought the baton home on leg 20.
The baton, from the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, was loaned from club member Helen Holdroyd, who was given the baton having volunteered at the Games, who was down to run a leg but unfortunately had to pull out ahead of the day, as did Emma Glanville and Alex Cochrane, who both sustained injuries in the week leading up to the event day. Here are a few stories from the day, in the words of the runners who ran!
Daniel Campbell-Miles: As my leg started in Woodside, I was waiting alongside Broseley Joggers for our leg 2 runners to come in. An overhanging tree blocked the view of the path, but soon some bright yellow trainers appeared and Aaron was ahead of the Broseley team!
Aaron joined me for leg 3, which goes from Woodside down to Coalport. Aside from the leg down from the Wrekin this has the steepest downhill section of the route into the Ironbridge Gorge world heritage site. It still has plenty of uphill sections too and offers some stunning views.
I’d done a recce of my route just the week before, so I knew where I was going, and luckily in the week someone had trimmed back overgrown nettles and brambles on the course, which made for a much less painful experience! Winding down the slope towards the banks of the Severn, we were soon in Coalport and handed over the baton to the Wilmots for their legs.
Neil Fairbrother: I arrived early in Little Wenlock for my leg, knowing that my section was a tough one – up the Wrekin! Harry came into view around the corner by the church just before 10:30am; I grabbed the baton from him and set off down a little track behind some houses, coming out on a very overgrown path next to a field. After clearing that (and collecting some nettle stings), I had about a mile of downhill on a country road, before turning right into some woods at the base of the Wrekin – the ascent had begun! For the next two and a half miles or so, I crossed fields and ran along tracks that steadily climbed.
I walked some of the steeper bits – I was ascending around 50 metres every kilometre, but as I passed halfway house, that doubled, and I ascended more than 100 metres in the sixth kilometre! On the steepest part of all, I saw the Broseley Jogger who was on his descent, a little way ahead of us. Once “heaven gate” came into view, I could see Jennie in front of me, heading to the handover point, so I knew the climb was nearly done. I reached the trig point, rounded it, handed Jennie the baton, and sat down for a few minutes to get my breath back!
Jennie Waters: I’ve run the Wrekin reservoir to Wellington leg, including up and over the Ercall, each time that NDRC have done the T50 relay – 3 times. It’s a lovely, mostly off road leg with a few twists and turns that could be confusing if you don’t know the route. This year, it was great to add on the previous leg – from the top of the Wrekin, down the beeches, past the rifle range and around the reservoir. I thoroughly enjoyed bombing it down the Wrekin go as fast – well, apart from the bit where I ate dirt on an easy section I run on all the time. But no serious damage was done, and it lost me very few seconds.
John Stokes: Teamwork at its best on Legs 10 & 11! We arrived early, parked and crossed the road to our start position. Also waiting were the Broseley running club team, looking a lot fresher than us! Their leg 9 team member arrived first. We were then joined by coronation walkers team members waiting just like us. Jennie arrived and we were off, following the route we had recced.
We soon arrived at checkpoint 11, where two Wrekin Road Runners had been waiting for their off. We set off towards Apley, and it didn’t take us long to make a wrong turn – we retraced our steps to the right path. The finish post loomed into sight and Dave was patiently waiting! The baton was successfully exchanged, but in the excitement I forgot to stop my Garmin! It was a busy day at the T50.
David Thomas: I was looking forward to running leg 13, but had to pick up leg 12 as well after another runner picked up an injury. I got to check point 12 at the allotted time and had a chat with the runner from Broseley. John Stokes and Wendy Tonge came running in, and I collected the baton and I was off. From 12 to 13 just felt uphill all the way, passing under the M54 and up through the new solar fields on the left and right of Limekiln lane, which leads across some lovely open ground with great open views and wild deer.
Reaching the checkpoint at 13 was so refreshing, as from here it’s all downhill to Horsehay via the golf course where Dave was waiting at 14, and was eager to take the baton and set off. I’d recced both of my routes days before so I knew where I was heading on the day.
David Brown: I arrived at my handover point outside the Telford Steam Railway at Horsehay to find that a rival running club had just left. I had a message from Daniel that we are 30 minutes behind schedule. Both my team mates on each side of me were doing extra legs for friends that were injured. With my leg only just over 3 miles and a rival team with a head start, I decided to run this as if it was a competitive race.
After about 40 minutes of waiting, Dave finally came and handed me the baton. So I started my leg, making my way through tracks, back alleys, around houses and along paths that used to be railway lines. The last bit of my leg went over Ketley Paddock Mound, which was once an iron ore works but now is a nature reserve. At the end of my leg I handed the baton to Oliver, who I believe only waited for me for only 2 minutes.
Oliver Stokes: I’d recced my assigned leg, 15, which took me from Holyhead Road Ketley to Oakengates, prior to running it. I parked at the end then jogged to the start, passing a Broseley Jogger in the underpass under the Wombridge Way. I got to the start with 2 minutes to spare before Dave Brown came sprinting in from his leg to hand over the baton. Once I’d reached the end of my leg I continued to run leg 16 due to a runner pulling out because of injury earlier in the week.
I climbed out of Oakengates and up many steps into the woodlands that eventually ended up near Asda in Donnington. I am ashamed to admit that despite trying to follow the route on my Garmin and being a Geography teacher, I got lost three times in the last mile as I tried to navigate myself out of the woods. I did finally reach Jo around the back of Asda so that the baton could continue its journey. Despite not being able to run my extra leg beforehand, I thoroughly enjoyed being part of the relay.
John Metzger: Kay and I decided to buddy up with our sections – in the hope that this would mean we wouldn’t get lost. More on that later! After a really blustery and rainy wait at Lilleshall monument, Joanne Lutner appeared and had to do her final ascent to the monument. She looked glad to hand over the baton to me.
Kay and I got off on the next legs. The first part was the nice downhill out of Lilleshall village and got us warmed up well. Despite having done a recce, we got off track in Granville park and had to do a little “exploring” to pick up the route.
At some point, I passed the baton to Kay as we didn’t need to do a proper handover. We then did the uphill section to St Georges which gets the lungs going. Having previously got lost there on our recce, things were much smoother getting to Priorslee. We then gratefully passed the baton to Annabel by Hickory’s Smokehouse. But we had already decided to run the remainder with Annabel.
Kay Wilkinson-Smith: It was the first time I’ve done the T50 relay and really enjoyed it. I was down for leg 19 but John Metzger (leg 18) & I decided to run our legs together. We did our recce a few weeks before, got lost a couple of times so it was worth doing. On the day our start point at Lilleshall monument the weather was chilly windy with some light rain but we soon warmed up once we started running, ironically we got lost fairly early on at a point we had got right on the recce! But we soon got back on track.
We’d parked at Lilleshall and Jo said she was going to drive to Telford for Annabel finishing and was happy to give us a lift back so we decided to join Annabel on the final leg, the hill to the finish was a bit of a killer for me as I’d ran 11 miles the day before! I loved it, great camaraderie within the team, loved the updates/banter on the group chat and seeing all the photos & videos. I would definitely do it again and can recommend it to others. Great day!
Annabel Bolton: I took on the last leg of the relay, having walked from the Town Centre to my change over point, partly to save transport logistics but mostly to recce the route! The rain fortunately held off and I was very pleased that both Kay and John decided to join me on the run into the finish and pushed me up the hill at the end where we were greeted by some of the team.
It is such a fun event to be part of, keeping track of the rest of the runners and supporting everyone in their efforts!
Newport & District Running Club 