Southern Road Relays

AFD were pretty confident coming into this race. We had a strong team out, and personally, I thoguht I could edge under 18mins if all went well.

Jonny Hay had a good run on leg 1 and we were in touch with the leaders, which was all we needed to be at this stage. After the 2nd leg Ben Lindsay had eaten into this lead and gone past Belgrave to open up a gap that Paul Rodgers held onto. Asho isn't in his best form right now, but he didnt lose much ground and so I had about 15 seconds on Simon Jones of Belgrave, wanting to give Andy Vernon on last leg a bit of a cushion as he was only supposed to be running it as a tempo. The temptation when you're out front is always to go off really hard as you have no idea if you're being caught or not so withthis in mind I tried to keep it comfortable for the first lap, which I went through in 9.02. Teammates were telling me the gap was growing and so I just had to stay focussed on the 2nd lap to keep it that way. To be honest, I thought I was fading a bit on the 2nd lap and expected a much slower 2nd half, but came home in 18.07, giving Andy around 50 seconds to play with, which he's never going to throw away! I ran 18.03 last year and thought I was in better shape this time, but it certainly wasn't a bad run, especially after a 100mile week, and I had already been out for a run this morning too!

It was good to win, only our 2nd victory in 20 years I'm told, and with a possibility of Thommo coming in for the Nationals, we're in with a shout there too. Belgrave and NEB could also get a bit stronger, but the teams put out by them today certainly ween't weak. Personally, I'm satisfied, but not ecstatic, with the time which was 7th fastest of the day. I think if I'd been chasing someone I may have threatened the 18 minute barrier, but it's hardly the be all and end all!

Results