National 12 Stage Road Relays

As anybody who reads my blogs will know I have been struggling with a calf problem, and it has seriously affected my training over the past 3 weeks or so.  I have done my best, given the lack of any medical support to nurse the problem back to health as quick as possible without doing myself any damage.  After all I am a track runner,  and my season starts in a couple of months.  Still I love running these races and it was great to be part of a team that we knew was very strong.  Leeds have been dominant for a few years and we wanted to claim the title back, so we have been working hard as a team to get all the guys interested and fit in order to reclaim the title.  Strangely enough, although the women ran a course record and there were some fantastic times from the likes of Phil Wicks and Phil Nicholls, I felt that times, especially over the short stages were a little off.  I would like to think that all the guys on the short stages were 10 seconds off what we wanted, and that gives us another minute!  Still you never know with these things, so you just got to do your best.  Recently I have run the last leg, but given Dan Mulhares form and great run at the Southerns I found myself (my decision) on stage 10, and we decided rightly as a team he should have the glory leg.  Time wise we were down on the time we were really aiming at, but still in with a shout of our own club record so I set off trying to make the most of my current fitness and problems.  Funnily enough, by the time I got to the top of the hill I felt the best I think I have in all my races here, so pushed on as hard as I could.  I knew I was going ok, but inevitably I hit a tough patch, and I knew this was the case as I was for the first half catching slower guys from teams and going past.  There was one guy in front of me and as I made the turn was trying to gun him down.  It didn´t happen for ages.  I was struggling and I knew it!  All the way down the back and up to the lake I struggled, I didn´t make any inroads into the guy either, so fair play to him!  Eventually when we got off the mud I began to pick up, caught and passed the fellow I had been trying so hard to catch and managed to put my head down again and come home strong, strangely feeling ok going up the hill.  My time of 14.33 was off the 14.08 I ran last year, but again after everything I was pretty happy, and I even made the top ten of the day.  More to come around this course and next year I have to go sub 14.  It was nice to watch Marty and Dan come home strong to lift the title and break our own club record.  Like all sports there is heartache and euphoria, and this was summed up seeing Tipton come past Shettlestone in the last few yards of a four hour race!  The joy of the 12 stage over for another year.