Birchwood Park, 20 September 2014
The Wilmslow dream team lined up against the best club teams from the North of England. The 6k+ course covered the most scenic bits of Birchwood BUsiness Park twice from a start by the pond. Damian was right up there on the frantic first leg. Andrew inevitably lost one or two places but did a great a job turning out for the team as he recovers from injury. Jeremy picked up the pace and after captain Trevor's scorching leg we were beginning to dream of a top 50 placing. Well actually we hadn't a clue where we were as on a 2 lap course with the ladies race also in progress you just have to concentrate on running as fast as you can and overtaking anyone you see before you. After a solid leg from Richard I took the baton, leaving the pen just as Stockport were crossing the line to win. To give an idea of the standard, the average time for Stockport's athletes was over a minute faster than Damian. In fact we'd have needed a team of 3x Damian followed by 3x Rob in order to get into the top 25 and earn a place at the National Relays. But then again there were over 50 teams behind us …
We all enjoyed the challenge of competing on a bigger stage and seeing so many top athletes whizzing past us. We should try to do more Northern Athletics events especially when they are nearby – the next one is the Northern XC Relays 18 October, Sheffield. Thanks to Trevor for rounding up a team for this event and Nick for all his support.
Rob
1 Stockport Harriers & AC 'A' 1:52:09
61 Wilmslow Running Club 2:13:12
Damian Nicholls (27) 19:45 (74)
Andrew Whittingham (74) 23:48 (551)
Jeremy Bygrave (68) 22:31 (431)
Trevor Morris (58) 22:06 (375)
Richard Hirons (69) 24:01 (571)
Rob Downs (61) 21:01 (216)
The first number in brackets is team position at the end of the runners leg. The second is the time ranking in the table of all runners (just to make us feel even faster!).
116 complete teams, 774 runners.
Full results at http://www.race-results.co.uk/results/2014/
Well done to all that took part.
It’s easy sometimes to sit in your comfort zones and win many of our local events…More challenging both mentally and physically to stand and be counted against the best the North of England has to offer. From the Scottish borders, across and down.
Rob makes reference to Stockport…
To put things into context the average time from the winning team(a team of six)was a 15.30 5k, but they also had to maintain that over 6k and some felt the course was long.
So well done…Good to mix it with the best !
Nick.