South of England Road Relays: Men

On Sunday a Woodford team gathered together at Aldershot for a pre-season opener, to have an early check if training was going in the right direction, to start the training process or in one case to use a 6k as Ironman preparation!

Up first was CJ Shepherd, who has determined to get fit the old school way by racing most weekends. It is a method only successful for the strong willed, but the Barnsley man has the grit which his county men are so famed for, so it could be an interesting move! He set off well and by the end of the first lap of 10.31 he was holding onto the group in front, which by the middle he had moved to be in the middle of, and by the end of the lap was leading them in. He ran a well paced 21.13, for us to be in 65th place.

Up next was Tomaz Plibersek. When asked how his training was going he was modest as always but a glint in his eye showed he expected a good run. He had said he had been doing some strength work and this showed as his form remained impeccable throughout the race, giving him the appearance that it was effortless, but his 19.18 (first lap 9.32), 29s faster then last year, showed that he had put in a good shift as he got the team up to 47th.

Steve 'Ironman' Lambert was next leg. No many people, two weeks out from an Ironman, and with a hurt shoulder, would answer this manager's email saying that a team would be incomplete, with a 'yep, i'll run'. Steve showed real dedication by turning up at the pick up point a day early, which set his training another day off, but still turned up on the Sunday full of good humour. As one can imagine Steve's work has not been set around the 6k mark, and he was interested to see how his pace went. 22.55 was his time (11.10 first lap), 15s faster then last year, so on speed alone, Steve can expect to run the marathon 1 min 45s faster then last year, he just has the 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile bike ride first!

Then came Gareth Cavell. In good form, Gareth was looking forward to a run, but coming into the start/finish area heading for a 10.25ish first lap Gareth's calf went at the bottom of the hill. He pulled up and still tried to jog on but anything that stops the tough London cabbie must be serious. What no one expected was a bare chested Bertie Powell to then jump over the ropes! Having seen Gareth in trouble he had whipped off his top, and although Bertie was there as a spectator he told Gareth to give him his vest. This extraordinary turn of events obviously got the officials into a bit of a stir, but after this manager went to explain that we didn't have, to quote Baldrick in Blackadder, a cunning plan to swap the 5 foot 4 Gareth, with the 6 foot 3 Bertie, right where people would least expect it, in the start/finish straight, to force us back into the top 20, but that Bertie was just helping the team out, the officials were (as I've always found) very understanding of the situation and said we could continue. Bertie ran a good lap, with no warm up and in tracksuit bottoms, in low 10 minutes to get a leg time of 21.09.

Sam Benge was one happy recipient of Bertie's good deed, and the university man set off with good purpose. However his calves tightened as well and Sam was reduced to walk, but once back to running and coming down to the finish Sam's leg turnover speed matched anyone seen on the day and indicates that if some solid training can be put in, as Sam is only two weeks back from a break, then some decent positions could be posted this winter. He ran 21.20 (with a 10.30 first lap) which delighted CJ who got to gloat again as he seems to have on memory all his victories over the uni man.

Our Anchor Leg and new first claim member was Donatas Tumaitis. Coming into his first Woodford relay to take anchor leg is a task, but Donatas seemed fully at ease with it and relaxed, just looking forward to his run. He set off well with a 10.05 first lap and, like Tomaz, looked strong through out his leg, he overtook 6 on the way to get us into 43rd position with a 20.37 run.

The position was as expected and this race did its job of serving as a start of season wake up, as Serpentine came 2nd and confirmed that this season they will be a force at a national level. Highgate started again well with a 5th place and closed four teams. Our team spirit was excellent through out the day and although losing an in form stalwart like Gareth is a bitter blow, this manager hopes with a few more weeks of training we can get the season off to a good start at Claybury.