National 6 Stage

This was a great day for AFD, taking both the mens and womens titles. The women always win so that wasn't such big news but it's amazing that Aldershot hadn't won the mens title since 1981. I remember being on last leg in 2009 and having to chase Neil Speaight down to win but wasn't able to and so had to settle for 2nd. I was fairly surprised when Mikey B team manager put me on last leg again this year. I hadn't raced since June and wasn't fully fit. To be honest I didn't know how fit I was. I'd done a fair bit of running but not much beyond tempos, and only did my first proper reps session the week before which was solid if unspectacular. We had a strong team and I expected us to medal but knew the win would be tight between a few teams. I suspect Mikey put me on last leg as I tend to run quite sensibly and can run hard even if not chasing anyone. Of course I'm not going to be the best if it comes down to a finish and even moreso right now being short of sessions and sharpness so I would have thought Andy Vernon would have been the obvious choice for last leg but it all turned out fine in the end!

I expected Newham to be the main threat as they had a great team out too and Josh Gorecki had a storming run on leg 1 to put us right up there from the start. I must admit I was a bit nervous to hear he'd charged to the front early on in the leg to get a lead but he was in control and brought su home in 5th place. Mashers then took over and kept us in contention, losing a couple fo places but only just behind Newham. Jonny Hay then took us back up to 4th, and this leg was the first time I really thought that Birchfield could be a threat, as they moved to the front of the race with a 17.02 leg from Zak Kihara. I was warming up now and trying not to think about how close it could be by the time it was my turn to run. I was doubly nervous about being unsure about my fitness and also that I could be taking over with a small lead being chased down by Keith Gerrard, fresh from his sub 64 Great North effort!

In theory, our last 3 legs should be our strongest and Andy Vernon ran a quality leg as you would expect from him and brought us home in the lead for the first time in the race. We didn't have a big lead though but we did have 40 seconds on Newham who were now in 3rd, and Steve Scullion's leg was going to be vital. He was against James Ellis from Newham and James Trollope from Newham. Both Ellis and Scullion can be prone to have good races and bad races so I was either going to be given  a short lead against Keith, or a comfortable one. I had no idea which it was when I took over, but Steve had run well and pulled further away from Newham but had actually come home in 2nd place as James Trollope from Birchfield overtook him late on. 

I didn't know the gap I had on Keith, but I was told the Birchfield guy on last leg was an 800/1500m runner so I backed myself to be able to make up the small gap he had on me. I just told myself to be patient and not panic. The temptation is to make all the ground up as soon as possible but as I wasn't sure of my fitness, the worst thing I could do was go off too hard as I may not have the strength to hold on.

I slowly gained on Birchfield and caught them just along the top of the hill. As I passed him he tucked in behind me and actually held on for abou 800m and I was starting to worry if I'd be able to shake him off or not. As we turned the dog leg I had a few seconds and could see I had a decent gap over Keith, but it was hard t judge how much it was. I started to feel like I was hanging ona  bit along here and just told myself to really work hard as once it was out of the way I could relax down the hill and then push to the finish. Birchfield had a lot of support out and I could tell they hadn't given up yet and had to keep extending the lead. 

I really felt like I was hanging on as I swept down the hill and I was getting varying messages about the gap I had. I expected that once I had got away I would be ok, but shouts ranged from 50m to 100m and then back to 60m so I was a little worried that I was perhaps slowing down and fading! No-one was mentioning Newham so I hoped that I would now be clear. With about 800m to go I started to get shouts of 'Bring it home' and 'Great running' so I now started to think that I looked pretty safe and no-one was panicking about people behind me. I still didn't really relax until I could see the finish line though, and in the end AFD had won by 30 seconds, and Keith had made up 20 seconds on me but it wasn't enough. I ran 17.28, which was only 6 seconds slower than my PB on this course and I was hoping that I would run 17.40ish, but was really happy with 17.28 considering my only recent return to training.

Here's my interview taken straight after the race. I was knackered.