Yesterday 12 men from Otley AC travelled north to Catterick Garrison for the annual North of England 12 stage road relay. As a team we usually finish about 30th with the top 25 qualifying for the National 12 stage road relay a fortnight later. Although we did finish in the top 25 a few years ago but then couldn't get a team together for the National!!!
The format follows a similar pattern every year although the venue and courses change continually. This year we had 6 stages of 8k alternating with 6 stages of 4k. I was on down to run the 8th stage ... a short one.
Long before I started we had come to the conclusion that the course must be shorter that the advertised distance as the times were far too quick ... 13 men ran the 8k (5 miles) stages in 22:30 or quicker.
I found the course to my liking but there was a bit of a headwind during one long straight section - it was cold too. I ran the 4k in 14:15 and later worked out that that equates to 5:44 per mile ... I know I didn't run that quickly so I immediately knew it had to be short.
Back at home I used the internet to measure the course and found it to be about 3.7k (2.3 miles) and thus my time equates to about 6:10 per mile. Yes, that's more like it ... I'm quite pleased with that actually as most of the time I was running by myself.
Good speedwork - even for me.
The Otley AC team results were:
(1) ... Liam Dunne ... 8k in 26:03 ... finished in 31st position
(2) ... Ben Cousen ... 4k in 13:26 ... finished in 31st position
(3) ... Edward Davies ... 8k in 26:08 ... finished in 30th position
(4) ... Howard Jeffrey ... 4k in 16:44 ... finished in 35th position
(5) ... Ian Fisher ... 8k in 23:16 ... finished in 27th position
(6) ... John Armitstead ... 4k in 14:39 ... finished in 28th position
(7) ... Huw Illingworth ... 8k in 27:49 ... finished in 30th position
(8) ... me ... 4k in 14:15 ... finished in 30th position
(9) ... Andrew Robertshaw ... 8k in 25:18 ... finished in 30th position
(10) ... Mick Jeffrey ... 4k in 14:44 ... finished in 29th position
(11) ... Julian Mawson ... 8k in 26:29 ... finished in 28th position
(12) ... Matt Broughton ... 4k in 14:54 ... finished in 29th position
Overall it was a very enjoyable day out ... it's just a shame the club couldn't get a team in the women's 6 stage relay held at the same time.
Thanks to Mick Jeffrey for organising everything and to Jack & Kath Robertshaw for coming to support.
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