Midland Men's 12-stage Road Relays (29/03/2015)

Team Manager Dan Beier reports on the days racing at Sutton Park,

The men ventured to Sutton Park with 2 complete teams, just! Several athletes turned up and got round even though they were ill – and the result is that we managed to qualify both teams into the National 12 Stage Championships on Saturday 11th April!
Birmingham City Council had forced the organisers to make some last minute changes on the morning of the event; the small loop just after the start was made much longer than normal and the finish followed the 6 stage route after Keepers’ Pool. Overall, this made the course a bit longer with a sensible estimate seeming to be 1 minute added on for the very fastest runners to 90 secs for those a bit slower.
For the A team, Dan Dalmedo returning from illness and in his first race for a while, kicked things off with a 29:32 clocking bringing him home in 13th place. Next up was Gareth Griffiths, who is seeming to get stronger with every race at the moment and he clocked an excellent 16:21 to climb 5 places to 8th. Ian Williams ran a very solid 28:21, which was our fastest long leg of the day, to move us up to 5th. Luke Vine returned to the sort of form he is capable of, running 16:30 and moving up to 4th. For the next 6 legs we maintained our 4th place, chasing Wolves and Bilston in 3rd. On 5th leg it was Rich Kay, although well short of his best, but nonetheless showing a committed club attitude to turn out and get round in 30:28. On 6th leg Dean Bate, making his debut with a very solid 17:21. On 7th leg Phil Wilson produced an excellent long leg running on his own and recording 28:57. 8th leg Liam Roberts recorded 16:20 to just claim Tipton’s fastest short leg of the day. Chris Gillespie on 9th leg returned from injury to record 17:09 and start to close the gap on Wolves. Harvey Maguire on 10th leg
recorded an excellent 16:22 and got to within a few seconds of Wolves. On the 11th leg Shaun Barnsley, having only been drafted into the A team at the last minute, fully justified his inclusion with a very solid 17:02 to sneak home in 3rd, just a second ahead of Wolves. Tom Holden was on 12th leg and returning from illness. Unfortunately he met a Wolves last leg runner very much in form and couldn’t quite hang on to 3rd, but a solid run nonetheless in 17:49. Also really pleasing is that 4 of the team are 23 or under.
The B team was also a mix of youth and experience. Dean Hill got us off the mark with 33:03 in 37th place. This was followed by Nigel Stirk making his umpteenth return to Sutton Park to record 17:44 – the B team’s fastest short leg - (official results are a bit out between 2nd and 3rd leg) and gain 9 places to 28th. Matt Smith ran a solid long leg in 32:17 to gain another 2 places. Mike Buntin was very much under the weather but battled round in 19:00 to ensure we remained in contention for a top 25 finish. Chris Fullerton produced a very good 31:16 clocking – the fastest long leg of the B team to gain 3 places to 22nd. Loz Heathcock ran a solid short leg in 19:04 followed by Ray Stanier’s 35:32 as part of his London Marathon preparations to leave us in 27th place. Adam, also struggling round while ill, clocked 18:49 to place 25th. Tom Acha ran the 9th leg in 19:00 and Joe Fairfax the 10th in 19:58 to leave us in 23rd place before the mass start. James Booker (leg 11) and Bryan Mills (leg 12) set off with the crowd at the mass start, needing good runs to keep us in the top 25. As it was James produced a very good 18:39 to move us to 21st and Bryan got round admirably in 20:45 to see us over the ‘line’ in 24th. A great result in the end, with, like the A team, 4 runners aged 23 or under!

So, 11th April next stop – what will it bring? Excitement for sure!