National 12 Stage Road Relay 2014
On Saturday, the best of the country’s running clubs descended on Sutton Coldfield to take part in the last winter race of the season, the National 12 Stage Road Relay. The promised blue skies from earlier in the week were replaced by grey cloud, but fortunately the rain held off apart from one light drizzle. The news that greeted us was that the course had been shortened, which was a blow to some of our runners who must have been looking at our all time list with some anticipation, to making a mark on it.
Photos (by Terry McCarthy)
Photos (courtesy of Adi Royle)
Martyn Cryer had to be one of these, as recent form showed him to be in excellent shape. With the London Marathon only a week away, Martyn was racing as he started an easy week to taper for the marathon. But having stepped off the plane from Lanzarote on Thursday evening, he had felt not 100%. However, his time of 26.11 was good enough for 26th of 61 on the opening stage and, even though Martyn was not wholly satisfied, it was our fastest long leg of the day and got the team off to a solid start.
In next was Angus Holford, our academic man whose training is done mainly at 7.30 in the morning. He had been pleased to be put on a short, but leg two is a tough leg as team order tries to even itself out, and even though Angus ran 14.14 he had it tough as runners passed him, but although we were in 32nd there was nothing between us and the 6 teams ahead.
This suited our next man out, Tom Phillips, who had agreed to be on a long leg, as long as it was no time trial as pacing over the longer distance not being viewed by Tom as one of his strengths. He must have been slightly bemused as taking a lift up with the team manager usually means you arrive in plenty of time but, due to a missed turn by this team manager, his warmup looked like it would be from the car to the camp, to the start line! However this was a good leg by Tom as he found himself in a race from the start and his 26.44 pulled us into 27th place.
Sam Benge was our next man out. The likeable University man was pleased to be in the A team, and had earned his place after doing a good leg for the B team in the Southern relay. Things went slightly awry after Sam had stomach trouble half way around the lap and he was disappointed with his 16.07, but he was reminded that in relays these things happen, and it would be a dull sport if everyone turned up and did what they said they should do on paper. The team was now in 36th.
Up next was life member Matt Shone who, having a new baby and job in Cheltenham, has been so busy that he had been able to do only a limited amount in the build up to the race. But as usual when told in the week he would be on a long not a short leg, he accepted it with nothing but good grace. And it was as if the running fates had decided to give the crowd something extra to watch, as Paskar Owar (Ugandan Athens Olympian) from Belgrave cut through the field and closed on Matt, Paskar (800m pb 1.46.37) probably thought he had the beating of anyone on a sprint finish, but Matt (800m pb 1.46.72) rolled back the years, as both flew to the finish, Matt just beating Paskar over the line, to the delight of the watching Woodies. His 27.00 moved the team up to 33rd place.
Our sixth leg was CJ Shepherd. CJ is training for a marathon in Africa in May for a charity that helps to improve the living conditions of children in Africa. He answered a late call to the team, and he delivered a fine leg as his 15.18 off not much speed work shows the ability that is there, and set a fine mark for other team mate Joe Everitt to aim at. The team remained in 33rd.
Next long leg was Darren Southcott. Darren had been training well but wasn’t sure how fresh he would be, but his recent form suggested that, even if not completely recovered from training, he would still go well and his 27.17 moved us up into 32nd as Tynebridge got reeled in, and we now had two other teams in our sights.
Up next was Joe Everitt. Joe has been a sponge this season, taking up advice from every good runner (and wisely staying away from advice offered by this manager) and applying it to help him improve, and the results have been there for all to see as he continues getting better. He was inspired by seeing the run in between Matt and Paskar on leg 5, and judged his pace perfectly to get the two teams ahead, Southampton and Holmfirth, and run a leg of 15.02 to move us up to 30th.
With 4 legs left we found ourselves 5 min away from 20th, always a nice target but surely too far from us now? Our ninth man out was Tom Beedell, who has been in training for the Boston Marathon in two weeks time. Tom has had a difficult winter with anaemia even being diagnosed, but has had a good return to form recently, and his 26.42 showed this. It kept us in 30th but closed up on the teams ahead, and kept a dangerous Southampton team behind us.
Leg 10 was Bertie Powell. Bertie has had a winter where he achieved two remarkable feats - 50 Met Leagues in a row and 50 scoring 12 Met Leagues in a row. As such he has been an invaluable member of the team for the past decade. But this season has seen him battling against injury, and in a text exchange this week Bertie said, if I need to hop to finish I will, which made this manager wonder if the run (no pun intended) may come to an end. But to doubt Bertie is to doubt if you’ll get taxed this year, it is a futile thing. But it was still with some amazement that we saw Bertie speed round to record 13.58, our fastest short leg to that point! This saw us move into 29th place, and we closed up again on the teams ahead.
Ed Shepherd was in next. It says something about your talent level where at only just turned 20, Ed is seen as a important cog in our team which has been very successful in recent times. Given the job again of closing up on teams and shutting the doors on others, Ed did not disappoint, running 26.12, one second off our fastest of the day, and equal tenth fastest on his leg. This moved us up to 23rd. However Cardiff, in 18th place, now failed to field a 12th runner, so we immediately moved into 22nd. Liverpool Harriers, just 8 seconds behind us, also failed to close a 12th man. We were 31s behind Birmingham and 48s from Gateshead - could Gavin Lewis catch either?
Gavin looked as relaxed as always. Although slightly put out by the sunny skies of Epping having become the grey skies in Birmingham, Gavin set out on his leg. He reeled back in the Birmingham runner and closed to 30s on the Gateshead man, and his time was our fastest short leg of the day with 13.52. Gavin had not been 100% in the week and said he had never felt comfortable on the leg. This shows the level he has put himself to, when he can be below par and still knock out a run like he did. I hope the course gets back to full length next year and Gavin gets below the 15 min barrier.
So we finished the day in 21st place, and had made up 4min 30s on Gateshead, a good team, in the last 4 legs! We had a real example of how difficult it can be to get a team together, as the 2011 winners Newham and Essex Beagles failed to appear when their team collapsed late in the day. So a massive thank you to all our runners for taking time out from their own goals and coming to represent the club at this prestigious winter event. Leeds were the winners, with the Southern Champions Aldershot in 3rd, how much must they have wished to have Chris Thompson again! Met League rivals Highgate were 9th, and Serpentine 15th. With Newham not competing we were the only Essex club to make the trip. The team spirit was excellent, and a thank you to all supporters who made the trip up. And a special thank you to the cheery local Brummie who helped out when this manager missed the turn to Birmingham and so had to take the scenic route, which meant he arrived after the start! Fortunately, said local was club manager legend Terry ‘kipper tie’ McCarthy, so the team was always in safe hands!