National Men's 12 Stage RR: 10th & Southern bronze
Our men's team produced a terrific performance on Saturday in the Men's National 12 Stage Road Relay at Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield, finishing 10th overall and taking the bronze medals in the South of England Championship which was incorporated into the event. Also, for the first time in the history of this event, we closed a B team which finished a very respectable 61st out of 80 starters/72 complete teams, and 5th B team. The outstanding individual was Matt Gunby, who established a new club record for the long stage.
Team Manager Terry McCarthy had struggled to bounce back after the cancellation of the Southern Champs 3 weeks ago when he had what he felt was the club's best-ever chance of winning the Southern title lined up. The subsequent decision to incorporate the Southern championship into this British event was understandable and correct, but McCarthy never felt his team would get amongst the honours with what was a significantly weaker team. The expectations were that: Bedford, our likely challengers in the cancelled race, would be as strong or stronger; Belgrave, who had been in serious danger of not even qualifying for the Nationals, were placing all their eggs in the National basket; Newham, rumoured to be weak at Milton Keynes, would certainly beat us; Highgate, maybe; and Aldershot - 7th last year - could well beat us too. Blackheath were rumoured to be fielding their two internationals Mike Skinner and Scott Overall, but would they have 12 good men? McCarthy felt his team was similar to last year's, which finished 12th and 6th Southern club.
On the positive side, this year we were fielding a B team for the first time, having qualified by dint of our 23rd place in the 2012 Southern Championships. This was a major endeavour in itself, finding 12 men to travel to Birmingham where we would be down towards the tail-end of the race. However in the last 12 months we have had our ranks boosted by several good athletes and it was felt that they had earned a run around this legendary venue which has witnessed the likes of Seb Coe, Mo Farah, Dave Moorcroft and Brendan Foster in their prime.
A teamThe day was chilly with flurries of wind and rain throughout. Manager McCarthy got a sneak preview of a surprisingly strong Shaftesbury team and added them to his list of Southern clubs who could beat us. We set up camp - our first-ever use of the club marquee - alongside our friendly rivals Highgate Harriers, who had beaten us by 9 seconds last year.
The legs alternate between long (8.692K) and short (4.835K) throughout the afternoon, starting with long.
Linked photos courtesy of Adi Royle.
McCarthy put England U20 CC international Ed Shepherd on Leg 1, feeling that he would be sensible enough to lay back off the very quickest men, yet fast enough to deliver a reasonable position on this leg which is always the stage with greatest depth. After 26 minutes, we were amazed to see Highgate's man in second place up the finishing hill - it was duathlete Danny Russell having a blinder and clocking 26.17, faster than any Woodford man has ever run. Our man Shepherd did a sound job and placed 27th in 27.36. It was pleasing for us to see Shaftesbury's Glen Watts, 3rd in the last 2 Met League races of the season, 12 seconds behind Shepherd. Aldershot's man was almost a minute down, and Newham's man struggled in almost 3 minutes later before disappearing to the first aid tent. The world's fastest 60 year old, Martin Rees of Les Croupiers, ran 28.58 (5.21 per mile!).
When Daniel Bruynooghe announces he is fit, he unfailingly delivers. He passed 5 men and clocked 15.23, our second quickest of the day. Behind him up the home straight came Anthony Whiteman of Shaftesbury, the current M40 world record holder over 800m, 1500m and 1 mile (who ran 15.18). Highgate's Bahelbi ran a quick 15.09 to keep them 4th. Spare a thought for Derby's Thomas Lawrence who took over in 1st place and dropped to 41st.
As leg 3 finished we were mouths agape as Highgate's Ben Noad charged up the hill in the lead. But, to our delight, it was not long (63 seconds) before our own man appeared. Matt Gunby had run 27.17 here last season, but now he was in far better shape, having clocked 23.59 for 5 miles last weekend in the Victoria Park 5. From the moment he got the tap on his shoulder to begin, he had his eyes on the club's all-time best of 26.35 set by Ewen Malloch in 2008 and he had a storming run, taking the team from 22nd to 7th as he chipped 4 seconds off Malloch's time to go to top our ranking. He was also fastest overall on Stage 3 and 11th fastest of the day.
On leg 4, 17 year old James Stockings was underwhelmed with his time of 15.51 as we dropped to 10th, but it was a quiet leg all round as the race settled down after the initial frenzy. Shaftesbury fielded big names Dan Watts on leg 3 and then Niall Fleming on leg 4, but we were still 80" ahead. Newham fielded GB 2011 World Champs 1500m man James Shane, but they were still 3 minutes down. Aldershot were only 23rd.
37-year old Matt Shone, recently nominated for Life Membership, had a great run on leg 5, as he said, resisting the temptation to get involved in any tactical battle and spreading his effort out evenly to clock 27.52, his equal-third quickest in 9 or so attempts on a long. He came in 9th overall, having passed Birchfield, Border and Coventry but being taken by Notts and Thames Valley (another Southern club!) and then getting into a terrific sprint with Stockport's Patrick Martin, a 48.30 10 mile man last year, whom he was given the verdict over as Martin clocked the day's fourth-fastest time of 26.06. Pleasingly, Shone took 24" out of Highgate's runner-manager Ben Pochee as they dropped to 6th. Blackheath played their Mike Skinner card on this leg but he only gained them 6 places up to 14th.
On leg 6, though he didn't have his best day, Angus Holford kept us in 9th and closed down on Thames Valley and Highgate, while the clubs behind were unable to reach him as the gaps grew. Newham ran their 3.42 man Frank Baddick but they were still 31st, while Holford took half a minute out of Shaftesbury's Trapmore, languishing in 19th.
Leg 7 was the leg after which we really started to believe it might be our day, strangely enough as we dropped to 12th! Central AC (from Glasgow), Stockport (in the shape of GB marathon man Andi Jones), Bristol and pre-race favourites Morpeth (who apparently had major last-minute problems) went past Tom Beedell, yet they seemed to inspire him to run 30 seconds quicker than in 2012 and to our great surprise he went past Highgate's under-par Ryan McKinlay as he came in 12th. We were now actually 3rd Southern club behind Belgrave (4) and Bedford (6). It was true that other Southern clubs were queuing up behind us in the shape of Highgate (13), Shaftesbury (up to 14 with a fine 26.48 from young Frank Bailey), Blackheath (16), Tonbridge (17) and Thames Valley 18), but we knew that our remaining 5 athletes included no weaknesses and were beginning to suspect that that might not be true of the others.
On leg 8 Jordan Donnelly turned the screw as he ran 15.24 - just outside what he wanted, but enough to lift us to 10th ahead of Stockport and Central, and to put a lot of time into the others, including Highgate. In fact, we were 50 seconds clear in the bronze medal position! Donnelly's time was 8th fastest on the stage. Mike Hager of Tipton B team ("fresh" from a 9.57 indoor 3000m last month) recorded 16.52 on this leg - at the age of 62.
Leg 9 saw some big names stretch their legs. Our Harold Wyber was overtaken by 2hrs10mins Olympic marathon man Scott Overall who ran 26.18 for Blackheath and GB World Junior CC representative Michael Callegari of Shaftesbury as we dropped to 5th Southern and 13th in the race. Up ahead, sub-63 minute half marathon man Phil Wicks of Belgrave only ran 2 seconds faster than our Matt Gunby had done, and Callegari was in fact 30 seconds slower. Team Manager McCarthy, though, knew from that Shaftesbury team sheet that they had played their last card, and Blackheath would have no more Skinners or Overalls up their sleeve. Wyber's 29.17 was 32" slower than last year but he deserves praise for turning out when so many marathon men become very sensitive the week before "the London" and put themselves well before their club. He also held the fort bravely as we waited for the cavalry to arrive.
Bertie Powell started to set things straight on Leg 10. Called into the team on Thursday, Manager McCarthy was never worried that he would not deliver, and he had only been in the B team due to a temporary crisis of confidence. Andy Mariani's withdrawal through injury was an opportunity for Powell and he took it with both hands, running our fastest short leg of the day, 15.22, which was also 5th fastest on the stage and inside coach Mick Woods' 15.30 requirement. In the process we went right back past Shaftesbury and Blackheath.
On leg 11, McCarthy began to hop around very excitedly, visualising Martyn Cryer - who ran 30.42 for 10K a month ago - running smoothly out to the far side of the park and consolidating our bronze medal position. And so it proved. While not quite in the same 30.42 shape, he still produced our second-quickest time of the day and the fourth-fastest on the stage, 27.32, to open up a big gap on Highgate. We were now back in 10th, sandwiched between Salford and Morpeth.
Leg 12 man Gavin Lewis has been a postman for 4 weeks and done his round in Epping in the morning before CJ Shepherd picked him up at 1pm and drove him to the venue. He said he was "knackered" and sat down for 20 minutes before warming up. He had shown very mediocre form at the Essex Road Relays 4 weeks ago but had declared himself to be much fitter now. And, like all our Woodford guys, he was as good as his word, clocking the 10th fastest time on the stage, 15.27. Morpeth's anchor man went away from him, but Salford's was unable to close the gap and we finished 10th.
The National medals went to: 1, Belgrave; 2, Leeds; 3, Cardiff. Southern went to: Belgrave (1), Bedford (5) and WGEL (10). We finished in 4 hours 20 minutes 27 seconds, our 4th fastest time on this course behind 4.16.23 (2008, 6th), 4.17.13 (1995, 22nd) and 4.18.50 (2009, 11th). We finished 2 minutes up on Highgate (12th), and 4 minutes on Shaftesbury (14) and Tonbridge (15). In the closing stages Blackheath dropped to 19th and Thames Valley to 23rd. Aldershot were 25th and Serpentine 26th. Big names like Sale Harriers Manchester and Birchfield Harriers were 28th and 36th respectively. Newham and Essex Beagles only fielded 7 athletes, while no other Essex club was represented.
Team Manager McCarthy was delighted with the team's performance, "A lot of the guys ran really well out there today. Conditions weren't particularly favourable, but they ran quickly. It's all the more pleasing because we weren't expecting it."
It was our 4th set of bronze medals in the Southern 12 Stage, after 2008, 2009 and 2011.
B team
Before the race McCarthy said that he would "be proud if we beat even one club, or even if we don't beat any". In other words, just to get a team around would be an achievement. Part of the idea was to enthuse and motivate the guys for the future. Only 9 clubs entered a B team.
M40 Mat Clarkson was asked to do leg 1 (not Tomaz Plibersek as the results show) "because he has broad shoulders and would not be intimidated by the standard). And indeed, Clarkson delivered the team's fastest long stage of the day by over a minute and got us off to a flying start, finishing 58th out of 80 and 3rd of the B team runners.
Kevin "Pink Shorts" Murphy was a late addition to the team, his manager having discovered on the Thursday that the dozy 'aporth had not been receiving his emails for the last 10 weeks - but luckily he happened to be a) available and b) in reasonable shape. As such, he boosted us to our highest position of the day, 55th, as he ran 16.05 to leave McCarthy relieved that he was no faster than any A teamer! The athlete representing Leeds B ran 14.59 on this leg, 38" faster than one of his A team counterparts, and Leeds were beaten to the gold medals by just 16 seconds, so one wonders about the precise facts of that case!
For our remaining five B team long stage men it was all about bragging rights, because they are very evenly matched in many respects. In fact, all five ran between 31.01 and 31.30! Louis Clark on stage 3, who has lost a bit of fitness recently with an injury niggle, ran 31.17, which is 5.47 miling, and we dropped to 58th.
Rob Wilbraham on leg 4 was fairly surprised and pleased with his 17.44 as we dropped back to 61.
Tim Ballard was "the best of the rest", clocking 31.01 on leg 5 and keeping us in 61st.
On leg 6 M45 Steve Lambert was rewarded for his recent hard training, improvement and eagerness with a run at a place he is unused to - the big stage (thespian Lambert normally plays little stages). He should be very pleased with his 18.52 which left us in 66th place, just behind Serpentine B.
On stage 7 Tony Russell passed Trafford and Keighley A teams to leave us 64th as he timed 31.24.
On stage 8 Joe Everitt was rightly very pleased to clock 17.39 and leave us in 63rd as a team above dropped out.
On stage 9 M45 Gareth Cavell overtook Cambridge but Serpentine B were still ahead, albeit by just 20 seconds. It had been neck and neck between us and old rivals Serpies B for several stages now. Cavell's time was 31.30.
On stage 10 Steve Sweet made his debut for us and ran 19.28, which was roughly to be expected off recent form. This left us 63rd as North Derbyshire passed us, and Serpies B had pulled away with a 1min50secs lead.
On stage 11 CJ Shepherd got his reward for volunteering to pick up Gavin Lewis and drive up with his twin children to run leg 11, notching a time he will be very happy with, 31.03, albeit, he would be the first to admit, as part of the "mass start" of the remaining stage 11 runners. There were some big changes on this stage as some clubs were running out of runners and fielded their weakest links. E.g. Serpies B's and Telford's men clocked 34+mins, and Trafford's 37+mins. We were now 61st again.
And on stage 12 Jon Powell, who was a late volunteer who rightly suspected that team manager McCarthy did not really want to run this leg, clocked a respectable 18.28 as part of the stage 12 "mass start" which left us in 61st out of the 72 teams who closed.
We were a fine 5th of all B teams (behind Leeds, Bedford, Salford and Tipton), but all credit to Serpentine and Sale for both closing B teams. We beat 9 A teams.
Team Manager McCarthy said, "I'm very pleased that we took this B team today. The lads who ran deserved the opportunity for their loyalty and quality throughout the season. An event like this cannot fail to motivate an athlete to keep on training hard. Hopefully many of them will see further improvements in the coming months as a result. It was also valuable to have more men around to encourage and cheer on the A teamers, and it gave our supporters more to cheer about, too."
It was a bright end to a winter season whose highlights were winning the Essex CC title, 5th in the Southern CC, 15th in the National 6 Stage Road Relay and 2nd in Met League Division 1.