National 6 Stage Road Relays

After my good run at the Northern 6 Stage, I was hopeful of another step forward in performance here, although I hadn’t been feeling well for a few days.  I took over on leg 2 from Matt Barnes who had a decent run on the first leg and was about 50 metres behind a group containing Dave Mitchinson.  I knew Mitchy was in good shape so I tried to guage my effort on the opening loop by keeping an eye on the gap between us.  After about 2 minutes of running, Jonny Mellor came by me and I made the mistake of trying to use him to pull me up towards the group ahead.  Jonny later admitted he had gone off too fast and so for me to attempt to follow him in those early stages as he sped to the 3^rd fastest leg of the day was a bad move.   

The second half of the hill was a struggle and I was overtaken by a couple of lads who I later saw on the results as running around 19mins.  I managed to gather myself along the flatter section on the top and responded again as Joe Bailey came by me.  I fed off Joe quite well and probably ran around 7 or 8mins with him.  My second mile was run entirely with Joe and was a 4:46.

I just lost contact with Joe as we turned the cone to head back towards Jamboree Stone.  I tried to keep the gap to a minimum but was starting to work quite hard and just didn’t have the staying power I had shown at the Northern 6 Stage over the same distance.  I didn’t feel myself today – possibly because I hadn’t been feeling so well over the last few days – and was disappointed that I was only able to run 18:07. 

I ran 17:51 here last year and I feel that I could have improved on that had I come into the race healthy but I still need a bit more training in the bank to get down towards my best of 17:34.