South of England Women's 4-Stage Road Relay: 11th
In what now seems to be a meteorological custom, Aldershot was bathed in warm late-summer sunshine as the WGEL girls gathered for the first race of the new season on Saturday. 50 teams were contesting the championship - some of them from far away lands like Guernsey and Norwich, where there may or may not be dragons; others more familiar rivals like Serpentine, Highgate and Shaftesbury; vests well known to us from the mud and mire of the Met League.
Missing our own flag this time, the resourceful Woodettes made camp next to West Suffolk's (whose colours matched our tracksuits perfectly) and sent travelling supporters Jim Roche and Terry McCarthy to scout the loos and get the coffees while they made essential pre-race preparations and compared shoes and sports bras.
With some notable absences, we fielded two teams. In racing order, they were A: Emily Moss, Kat Gundersen, Rachel Lund and Lauren Stewart. B: Anne Gombert, Alex Wardle, Jenny Thomas, Jess Docking.
The girls set off fast at the 3:55pm gun with both Moss and Gombert getting good starts. On this fast first leg Moss, coming back to fitness after recent injury - not helped by a pothole mishap - ran well to get round the course in a solid 14:10 to place WGEL in a good mid-order position as she handed over to Gundersen with the A team in 25th place. Commenting on her "OK" performance afterward, Emily, who ran our second fastest leg of the day, noted that she was 12" down on last year's run, but was relieved her ankle had held out and looked forward to getting down to business for the XC season. Cool tactician Gundersen, meanwhile, was busy picking off 2nd leg runners one by one and, in a strong 14:21, claimed a crucial 10 places to "Katapult" WGEL into a promising 15th place. Delighted with her stress-busting run after a long and busy week - the result of a solid summer's training - Gundo declared herself satisfied with a great job done and sent Jim off to get a celebratory coffee. Ace rower Lund, back in trainers after a niggling glute-type injury, knuckled down on a tough third leg and in a damage-limiting 14:55 handed over to Stewart in 17th. Pleased with her run, Rachel declared herself to be injury clear and ready for the mud. Speedy Stewart had it all to do and, with 14:03, having taken 6 places, Lauren ran our fastest leg of the day and brought the A team home in a creditable 11th place overall (57:29) - 10th A team, and one above last year's 12th. "I've trained like a beast" declared the immaculate Stewart, not wiping away any sweat. "I'm pleased".
In the B race (which as the final results show turned out not to be a separate race at all) Gombert ran a pleasing 15:46 to hand over to Race Day Captain Wardle with the WGEL Bs in 39th position. Gombert, whose preference is for distance, has trained relatively little over the summer and admitted she found the shorter distance "tough" - but she was nonetheless rightly pleased to have run the B team's fastest leg of the day. 3k junkie Wardle ran a ship-steadying 16:17 and handed over to Thomas in 39th. Wardle, who's put in a committed summer's training for both speed and strength (or "icing" and "cake" in her preferred idiom) ahead of an autumn half marathon, said she was moderately satisfied with her "heavy legged" run - our B's second fastest - but very hopeful for the winter season in general. Thomas, however, despite new shoes and timely shout-outs from spectators narrowly preventing a costly diversion, struggled to hold on in the third leg and her 16:41 cost two places. Handing on to Docking in 41st, distance-lover Thomas declared the run "hard" but acknowledged it to be "exactly where I am" and tried not to think about the necessary track work that might be needed to speed up on these shorter licks. Patient Docking, having been among the first to arrive at the course for the day, ran a brave anchor leg of 18:27, losing only 2 places, to bring the Bs home in 43rd. "That's my baseline set for the season" said a relieved Jess. "Onwards and upwards from here".
Commenting on the teams' overall performances, Race Captain Wardle said "I'm delighted to see a solid start to the season from the girls in green and white. Go us!" Asked to name his A team performance of the day, CC Coordinator Terry McCarthy said "All the girls made an important contribution. They all did good. You want my vote for tactical brilliance? Kat "Plus Ten" Gundo". Nuff said.
This is Brenda Bray fixture 1. The top 5 standings are: 1. Stewart (20); 2. Moss (19); 3. Gundersen (18); 4. Lund (17); 5. Gombert (16)