Anyone else running in their respective regional 12-stage road relay at the weekend?
I'll be at Sutton Park for the always excellent Midland 12-Stage. Leg 9 for me at the moment.
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Anyone else running in their respective regional 12-stage road relay at the weekend?
I'll be at Sutton Park for the always excellent Midland 12-Stage. Leg 9 for me at the moment.
Challenging conditions today at Sutton Park.
We had a mix of everything.... a bit of hail and snow, a little bit of rain, sunshine, and lots of wind.
68 teams on the start line, and as expected our opening leg came back clear in 1st with about a 20 second lead... however as the long legs went on we dropped back down to 5th.... on to the short legs and we started reaching down to runners of my calibre.... i personally dropped from 10th-12th on my leg, and we ultimately ended up 16th.
For me personally it was a good run. a pb of 18:57..... i ran 19:13 and 19:10 last year in the Midlands and Nationals respectively... and today the wind was significant, i'd imagine that was worth at least 20seconds, if not more.
Western Tempo took the honours, followed by Bristol & West 2nd, BRAT 3rd.
I wouldn't like to be our team manager picking the 12 for the Nationals in a fortnight... two guys in the 2nd team ran considerably quicker than a few of us in the first team... whilst i was technically 5th fastest out of the 8 short legs in the first team, three of us ran times within 5 seconds of each other. So if we have a couple of faster guys back available for selection as well, i might miss out.
Western Tempo is a new one on me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Travs
Well done Travs. I miss Sutton Park - haven't run there for probably 15 years now.
A couple of years ago, Cheltenham & County AC had a big split, and it seems the majority of the fast runners formed the new Western Tempo.Quote:
Originally Posted by Witton Park
Cheltenham are still around, although they have dropped into the lower divisions of the XC, having formerly been quite a force, and Western Tempo have clearly became a strong club. They also won the ladies' relay yesterday...
After pipping a couple of guys by less than 5 seconds at the Midlands a couple of weeks back, i've snuck a place on the team for the National on saturday.
Always hard to predict the winner.... smart money seems to be on Highgate Harriers... but Central AC (Stirling) have a strong looking team named, and if they all turn up then i fancy them to defend their title from last year.
As for us, i think we'll just look to improve our position relative to the Midlands sides (15th or 16th at the Midlands, i think we might get closer to the top 10 on saturday)
Personally i'll be gunning for a pb (hoping that the forecast wind isn't too much of a factor)
Some great racing at the National 12 Stage today, much warmer than a fortnight ago, but again very strong winds. This time it was a tail-wind over the back section, but on the final mile it was a fierce headwind (final two miles for those poor souls running the long legs).
Leeds City showed their strength and took the honours by about 3-4 minutes. Bristol & West striking a blow for the Midlands with a great 2nd place.
A right dust up for 3rd between Highgate Harriers and Cambridge & Coleridge, with Highgate taking it by a second in a desperate sprint finish... Cambridge coming from a minute back at the start of the final leg.
As for us, our fastest guy went first and was in the front group, coming back in 4th, but we then dropped through the field as expected.... final results aren't out yet but i think we finished around 35th (which was better than expected), and i think 7th or 8th Midlands club (again better than expected and a big improvement on the Midlands 12 Stage)
As to my own run, another pb, knocking 11 seconds off my time from a fortnight ago. With a mile to go i was around 30 seconds up on my previous time, however the wind on the final mile was ferocious and i somewhat fell apart.
Interestingly my fastest km was about 5secs slower than a fortnight ago, but obviously i was more consistent across the entire run.
Managed my two objectives for the day.... 1) Avoid being slowest on the team (i beat two clubmates by 20 and 30 seconds respectively) and 2) not be in the slowest 50 runners there today (a quick check of the results and i beat about 95 guys.... although that still puts me firmly in the slowest 15-20%)