SEAA 12- and 6-Stage Road Relays 2010
Our senior distance teams made their annual pilgrimage to Milton Keynes for the South of England 12-Stage Road Relay on Sunday. On this occasion both teams left empty-handed, the men having finished 6th and the women unable to close a team. We also closed 9 men in our B team. Dave Wardle’s terrific stage 11 for the day’s 4th fastest overall was the day’s highlight. Update: the men's team were awarded 5th place on Monday after 4th-finishing City of Norwich AC were disqualified for fielding an athlete whose name had not been pre-entered.
The men’s race was an odd one. On the one hand it was won by a club, Newham, who so managed to stack their team with outstanding runners that they broke the course record and beat a strong Belgrave team by almost 6 minutes. But on the other hand a mere 29 teams completed the race compared with 42 in 2009, and the quality amongst the 29 was extremely patchy indeed.
Men’s A teamThe event was clearly affected by clashing with many “pre-London” half-marathons, the English Schools championship and its proximity to the National and Inter-Counties CC which had taken their toll in terms of injuries. This was our own experience as we lost around 7 minutes in the lead-up to the race when long stage men Matt Barnes-Smith (achilles) and Ben Hope (ankle) withdrew, followed by short stage man Ed Messer (illness). This presented a number of our squad with unexpected challenges.
Having originally having turned up a day early to find the venue strangely still, Daniel Agustus returned and led off on Stage 1. He posted a 25.13 clocking for the 7.978 (4.95 miles), with which he was fairly content, having run 25.39 a year earlier on stage 3. That left us 13th. On stage 2, young Omar Mansour had a fine run of 17.20 over the 5.506K (3.42 miles) route and pulled us right through to 5th. This was a major improvement over his 18.11 last year.
Angus Holford replaced Barnes-Smith and ran stage 3. It was his first taste of long stage action and, as such, represented another milestone in his running career. We dropped back to 9th here but Holford’s 26.44 was roughly what was expected and thus “sound”. Andy Mariani’s 17.55 on stage 4 compared with 17.36 in 2009, explained by the race being a fortnight earlier and scarcely into Mariani's springtime sharpening. That took us back up to 6th.
Bertie Powell (who graduated straight to long legs and has never run a short) turned in his usual consistent performance despite feeling tired and under the weather. His 25.36 compared with 25.34 last year and promoted us to 5th as we passed City of Norwich AC. Jim Roche on stage 6 was one of the B team athletes who helped out by taking on A team pressure, but he had terrible luck. A nerve problem which sometimes hampers his performances struck with a vengeance halfway round the course and left him hobbling home miserably in 19.58 having lost four places.
On stage 7 Gavin Lewis was another promoted athlete. He sacrificed a potentially “very good” short stage to help by running a potentially “sound” long leg. He did exactly that, his 27.10 reflecting expectations pretty well. We lost another place and were in 10th. Alan Rugg on stage 8 was the last man called into the team. Rugg’s selection reflected the admirable progress he has made over the last 6 months at the grand old age of 50 and came off the back of his 5th place at the Southern M50 CC a week before. He duly did all that he could do and held onto 10th place in running 19.45.
On stage 9 Martyn Cryer set off a huge 1min 25secs behind Herne Hill Harriers in 9th, thus ran most of the stage with nobody in sight. But he gradually closed on HHH, Thames Hare & Hounds and Wells AC. His 25.35 was around 50 seconds down on what he would have liked but he was aware he was running on “flat batteries” for various reasons.
He handed over to Matt Molloy. Molloy was another replacement runner, already booked in to run the Brentwood Half-Marathon on the morning of the relay. Despite being a veteran (M40), despite running a big half-marathon PB of 75mins 19secs for 5th place, he drove over to Milton Keynes and ran a handy 18.46, passing Wells as he did so. How could he do this? He is an Irish international triathlete with a penchant for tons of hard work and a very good knowledge of his capabilities!
On legs 11 and 12 we had two of our original, planned top men, Dave Wardle and Hywel Care. Wardle had prepared for the race with a training week on the Côte d'Azur during which he racked up 116 miles in 6 days, yet he appeared perfectly fresh as he set off 62” behind 6th-placed Thames Valley Harriers. He simply tore through the field. By halfway he had passed HHH, THH and TVH, but then he took a wrong turn at an unmarshalled spot so that he found himself behind TVH again. Irritated, he blazed off past again. Despite this estimated loss of around 10 seconds, he ran the 4th fastest long stage of the day, 24.10 (compared with the fastest of 23.50 set by Moumin Geele of Newham).
We were now almost 3 minutes behind Bedford in 5th but 1min 45 ahead of Herne Hill in 7th, so Hywel Care was only running against himself. Care had opted for a short leg due to selection next week to represent Wales in the Home Countries International. He looked in great form as he mentally broke the race down into 3 sections, ran the first controlled, pushed on the second and gave it everything on the third. He was happy to break the 17 minute barrier with 16.53 but just missed Martyn Cryer’s 2009 time of 16.51 which was his next aim.
Our team time of 4:25.04 compared with 4:17.28 last year. Last year’s time would not have brought us medals this year (Aldershot 3rd in 4:16.41) but would have pipped Norwich (4th in 4:18.28). However this is, of course, idle speculation. We were 6th, well adrift of 5th and well ahead of 7th.
Other results of interest: Serpentine were 12th, Victoria Park 23rd, Shaftesbury 27th. No other Essex clubs were represented.
Manager Terry McCarthy said, "We've been blessed with good luck with our relay teams in the last 2 or 3 years. It ran out a bit this year, but that's sport. Hopefully we can get 2 or 3 men back for the Nationals in 4 weeks' time."
Women
The women’s race, like the men’s, was poorly attended. Only 18 teams finished, compared with 27 in 2009. Our own usually powerful team was decimated to the point of incomplete, while Aldershot, a major player at both regional and national level, only fielded 1 athlete!
Kat Gundersen was eager to continue her pursuit of the Brenda Bray Trophy for winter consistency and notched up more big points. She recorded a massive improvement over 2009, from 21.16 to 20.28. While only good enough for 9th on leg 1, it proved 13th fastest overall. Rachel Lund took over and chipped 4 seconds off her 2009 time in running 21.59 for 45th fastest of 122 on the day. She passed Hillingdon and, with Aldershot having no 2nd leg runner, we went into 7th.
W50 Stef McCarthy took leg 3 and recorded her best time here in 8 years, 24.13. It was 93rd fastest of 122 on the day. We dropped to 12th. And team manager Alex Wardle was the last of our runners, clocking 23.14, well up on last year’s 23.41. It was 77th fastest of the day, coincidentally 3 seconds ahead of Karen Balcombe (née Horswood), ex-WGEL and now managing the Met Police team.
The team result was 1, Bedford; 2, Windsor; 3, Milton Keynes.
Men’s B team
Richard Holland kicked off for our B team on leg 1, running 28.51. Holland is one of our M50 squad (including Rugg, above) that is eyeing the National 6-stage Road Relay in May with some ambition, so every race from this point has broader significance in terms of form. This only got him 35th of the 37 runners who started (46 last year). Rob Cox on leg 2 was running his first road relay, and clocked 20.39 having just returned from injury. Hopefully he will be back next year running much faster.
Dave Cox, another of the M50 squad, ran a decent 28.41 and put us 32nd after three legs. Team manager Terry McCarthy, yet another of the M50s, then ran 20.42 on leg 4 in a somewhat detached situation in which the only athlete he saw was the leading woman who flashed by him beneath the gaze of some of the older Woodford supporters who urged him – in vain - to “hang onto the young lady”.
Harold Wyber’s form continues to dip alarmingly, and his 30.31 compared with 29.41 in 2009. However he has vowed to get fit next year once his professional exams are completed. On stage 6 Karim Ali ran his first road relay, too, and performed very well. His 19.45 compared with Rugg’s run in the A team and confirmed that he and Rugg are in very similar shape as suggested at the last Met League event.
Steve Dawkins was another to get a wake-up call on stage 7. From 32.12 last year to 32.53 this year, "Steady Steve" knows it is a result of training not done. Andy Coleman was happy to run a light-hearted short leg this year off negligible training and was just happy to get around, in 21.06.
Julian Thorpe was happy to serve his club with pride off of bicycle training and though fearing a 40-minute run in fact clocked a chirpy 37.10. At this point, while 8 minutes ahead of tailenders Milton Keynes B, our B team gave up the ghost and turned to supporting the A boys.