Relays in the snow

Sunday morning greeted the entrants for the South of England 12 stage Road Relays with 6 inches of snow and a biting northerly wind. Not exactly what you would expect for a spring day. Whether it was the snow, proximity to the London Marathon or just another sign of declining numbers of serious runners only 36 teams managed to field a complete 12 man line up this year. At least our new tent left us well protected from the elements during a race that takes over 4 hours.

While Belgrave and AFD swopped the lead a couple of times before the Bels ran out comfortable winners the action behind was limited to say the least, with teams well spread out after the first few stages and only a few changes of place. My Wells City Harriers team put in our best performance at this event finishing in 7th place and with a few more big guns likely to be back in the team for the Nationals we will be hoping to improve on last years 18th place. For a couple of our guys this was their first experience of the relays since returning to the sport for the first time since school days and both Elliot Haimes and Matthew Lewis put in well paced runs to keep us in contention.

My 5th stage effort was another step forward after last weeks half marathon win with the second of the two 4.3k laps being about 15 secs quicker than the first to give me the equal 10th fastest time of the day.

It was a shame to see my Toronto team mate Neil Renault on the sidelines with a foot problem but he takes a mean photo judging by this effort !

Results:
1 Belgrave Harriers 4:00:01
2 Aldershot, Farnham & District 4:01:25
3 Woodford Green A.C. & Essex Ladies 4:04:23
7 Wells City Harriers 4:15:05

Fastest Long Legs:

1 Robert Russell Thames Valley Harriers 25:44

2 Dave Wardle Woodfrd Green A.C. & Essex Ladies 26:09

3 Ben Moreau Aldershot, Farnham & District 26:10

4 Adam Bowden Harrow A.C. 26:11

5 Simon Jones Belgrave Harriers 26:13

6 Neil Speaight Belgrave Harriers 26:14

7= Ben Lindsay Aldershot, Farnham & District 26:18

7= Stephen Hepples Newham & Essex Beagles 26:18

9 Simon Plummer Woodfrd Green A.C. & Essex Ladies 26:21

10= Adrian Marriott Wells City 26:42

10= Ewen Malloch Woodfrd Green A.C. & Essex Ladies 26:42