National 6 Stage Relays

I've always loved the relays at Sutton Park and there was the place I ran what I considered to be my first great race. I remember as an U13 making it onto the list of the fastest legs in 20th position and to have my name on there felt amazing. Back then my club Elswick finished 4th the following year when I was a bottom under 15, then top year under 15 I ran the quickest stage of the day on leg 1. Before I left my old club I had a couple of good runs on first leg winning them so now i'm at Tipton it's a great feeling to be apart of a club who are so enthusiastic and have high aspirations. 

I was put on 3rd leg for the club knowing that we had good solid runners on the first couple of legs in Gamble & Hinchy. We had a solid start on what is always a very competitive leg 1 coming back in 27th and then Hinchy made up some ground to come home in 22nd after the 2nd leg. I then set off in pursuit of those ahead of me knowing it'd be tough but the gaps weren't too big so I could use the athletes ahead of me to work off. I took it steady up the hill as I normally do and once I got off the top I began to get the legs turning. I was quite happy with the way I was feeling as I haven't really done anything to get my legs moving in training in recent weeks.

I kept the tempo going along the top of the course, turned at the cone and had Hainsy just in front of me. He is one tough cookie! I seen him look at he as he turned and he didn't half make it hard for me to get on his shoulder. Credit to him, he's in great shape again, it's good to see him back running so well. I got level with him, took a breather for a minute or two then pushed on again but I could hear him hanging onto me. This was great for both of us as it made me really try and push down the hill.

I got passed the Bedford guy at the bottom of the hill then had my sights on the young AFD and another athlete but they seemed to be moving pretty well themselves so I just had to try and gauge my effort off theres back to the finish. I just kept working and trying to close the gap as much as I could to give Aspinall a chance of getting onto them when he started. 

Aspinall had a very good leg and came flying home up the finish in 3rd to hand over to, arguably my all time favourite Tipton man, Phil Nichols. He ran awesome to get us into the lead to hand over to Nigel Stirk on the final leg. Nigel couldn't quite hold off the challenge of Bedford on the final leg and was unlucky to miss out on silver in a sprint to Eritrea & 2 Scots, sorry, Shettlestone Harriers. 

Still I can't complain I came away with a bronze medal when before the race I knew the team would have a chance of a medal, we'd just all need to perform and we all did which was great. It was an added bonus to get the fastest individual leg as I was expecting a sub 17 clocking from someone during the day. I'd hoped for that myself but it just didn't quite happen so I was delighted to be able to pick up my first national senior gold. Although I do have to give 100% credit for this run to Adam Peers. If it wasn't for him giving up his shotgun on the way to the race I don't think I would have broken 18 minutes. So I'd like to take this moment to give a special thank you to Adam Harry Peers from Liverpool AC.

I finished my leg feeling quite happy with the race as I had felt strong throughout and never felt in any trouble, I was a little frustrated I didn't have any zip in my legs to really get the legs moving on the fast parts of the course but I couldn't complain as i'd beaten my time from 2 years ago, the last time I raced the relays, and I know then I was in the swing of proper rep sessions whereas i've only done tempos and hills this year so far.

It's promising stuff going into the winter now, the relays are always a good marker to put down to see where you're at and guides you with training over the coming weeks.