North West Road Relays

The North West Road Relays is often referred to as the warm up for the Northerns the week after.  For me it landed perfect for a nice blast out before the Berlin Marathon. 
I was running on leg 2.  Joe Bailey was doing leg 1 for us, well he is faster than me and I suppose these youngsters need to have the choice of leg!!!  Anyway, one thing for certain was he was either coming back in the lead or very close to the lead.  As it happened Joe returned with a nice lead for me and also bagged himself the fastest leg of the day. 16.06  (But like I tell him, he did have the first leg advantage!!!)
I set off on second leg and started very quick.  Probably a bit too quick looking at Donnas face as I ran by her as she watched about 400m in to the race!  Anyway things settled and I ran a good strong leg.  I felt very good and really enjoyed the blast out.  Not sure if this is because there was no pressure on me as it didn't really matter where we finished as a team.  Our team was strong, just missing Carl Hardman who we couldn't afford this weekend!!!  I ran 16.15 for second fastest leg of the day which I was pleased with.  Handing over to Nathan he had a nice lead but had Steve Vernon for Stockport Harriers chasing him.  Even though Vernon ran 16.17 for third fasest he wasn't going to catch Nathan who handed on to Rob Hughes.  Rob found it tough going having ran a PB in the half marathon 6 days before but as usual gave his all and ran as hard as he could.  I am sure Rob could have been a few seconds quicker if he had recovered from the half but if didn't make any difference to our finishing position. 
In the end Salford won the relay over all.  This relay is an interesting event as not only do you have to run for your club but the teams have to be from the same county.  We had five Greater Manchester teams and one Lancashire team which is very good for Salford Harriers and down to the hard work Sean Cordell our team manager puts in.
So thats the warm up for the Northerns which I am away for, but in comes Hardman who is flying, or had best be anyway.
I am looking forward to the National Road Relays already as our strong Northern Team could be rather different as Tom and I will both be available for the National.
Good luck to everyone running this weekend!