Wilmslow fielded arguably its two strongest ever mens and ladies teams for this major event. Both teams finished in the top 10 which was a major achievement given the strength of the opposition and the fact that some of the county's top runners turned out. The men came 5th and the ladies 9th.
In the delightful surrounds of Marbury Country Park near Northwich the course was a traffic-free 2.7km loop on a narrow path past lots of cows alongside the edge of woods. Both men and women did two loops for the 5.4km distance.
The women were first off with Sue justifying her first leg status with the quickest leg, followed by Jane (who had hotfooted it from Running Bear) and Vicky who were just three seconds apart. Vicky managed to pick up a couple of places on the last leg for the top 10 finish.
Damian (also via Running Bear) had a blinding first leg for the men posting one of the quickest times of the day and taking some major scalps. As big Malc took over he briefly found himself in the lead until Pete Riley from Leigh Harriers stormed past. Malcolm held onto 2nd, passing to Rob who found himself up against some speedy third leg runners which pushed us back to 5th. I was last leg but there was no glory as I neither passed Altrincham in front nor was caught up!
All in all a refreshing change in a great venue and the closest running gets to a true team event. Thanks to Roy and Dave for their support too.
Ladies
leg 1: Sue Hool: 21.03 (team 13th position)
leg 2: Jane Saunders: 21.30 (11th)
leg 3: Vicky McKinnon: 21.33 (9th)
Men:
leg 1: Damian Nichols: 16.26 (2nd)
leg 2: Malcolm Fowler: 17.40 (2nd)
leg 3: Rob Downs: 17.53 (5th)
leg 4: Jim Pendrill: 17.34 (5th)
Jim
And more from Rob …
Roy: “Well here comes Malcolm but I haven't seen the leaders yet …”
Rob: “Yes Roy, Malcolm is in the lead”.
As we skipped around Alderley Edge on Thursday Malcolm had been recalling his long career in relay racing. Back in the glory years at Salford he'd prided himself on never losing a place in his relay leg. But surely today was one for him to slot in near the top of his relay experiences: here he was leading the entire North West around the park.
The start of the story was a storming first leg by Damian who produced possibly his best race yet to finish 2nd in a top class field. Winner Gareth Raven had no team so Malcolm launched himself into the lead and was only overhauled by Pete Riley during his second lap.
I now had a hard act to follow. I set off with Leigh already out of sight. It is hard to judge the pace with no runners visible ahead but no sooner had I though this than I heard fast footsteps behind and Liverpool, Warrington and Altrincham all raced past me in a group. Losing places like this is a relay nightmare but blowing up is worse so I just tried to relax and run a pace I could maintain. Into the second lap I kept plugging away and the gaps stopped expanding and I managed to work back towards Altrincham and Warrington.
Rob
And I felt a good deal better after reading the full results at http://www.cheshireaa.com/Results/ROAD/2008/NWRR2008_Results.doc
Way to go!
This was a brilliant performance by our top runners. Each seemed to relish the challenge and performed.
It never ceases to amaze me how after running hard one day, you can repeat the next!
(Rob, where were you?)
NW Relays
Damian 3rd fastest leg of the day claiming more big scalps from intenational runners ! Well done !