National 6 Stage

The last of the major road relays for 2010 and it was up to me to get the team rolling. I asked for first leg as I wanted a race situation because I haven't been in one for a long time and need the practice before Liverpool. Rumours floating around the course beforehand were that the first leg was stacked, including Runnerslife athlete Jonny Mellor. Looking at the results those rumours weren't far wrong.

As soon as the gun went off I was in trouble. I was a few rows back from the front line and it was a war zone as soon as the gun went off. For a start the gun went too early so it took everyone by surprise and there was a mad rush to get going. There was loads of shoving and bodies were being thrown in all sorts of directions. After a few seconds of being held up I eventually got out the mess and had to nail it down the hill to make up ground on the leaders who of course got a clean start. Going up the long hill I had made my way into the top 5 while Jonny Mellor, the Eritrean and Ben Tickner out ahead moving at pace. I was at the front of the chasing group and I could hear it was quite big. At one point I was running alongside Jermaine Mays and then getting to the top of the hill and making the right turn it was me and Ben Whitby. At front of the chasers me and Ben Whitby were alternating taking the pace, although I was reluctant to go ahead of him as I had heard about his 16 mile race so I knew he wasn't in bad shape. Down that long back straight were were making up ground on the leaders and from what I could hear the chasing group was starting to get thinner. First we got Ben Tickner and I think he hung on to us and then we entered the extra out and back bit and Jonny and the Eritrean were starting to look a bit bigger. We made up huge ground on this little bit and the whole way I was following Whitby as he had increased the pace quite a bit. Just before we came out onto the downhill home we got them. But just as the race started to get going a group of 6 became 5; I'd been dropped.

They started going downhill and opened up a slight gap on me and I didn't have the strength to go any faster and catch them up or go with them when they initially made the break. They slowly pulled away as the finish got closer and I was just trying to limit the size of the gap and hold my position. But then with a couple of minutes to go the legend that is Ian Rawlinson said to me "you can get them! Use your speed!". I found it odd that he said this to me as he was from Tipton and also I didn't think I was renowned for my speed. Anyway I opened up my stride as much as I could and tried to get the legs moving quicker. Fortunately for me Jonny Mellor and Jon Willis of Bristol and West had become detached from the group and gave me a target to chase and the screams for Ben Tickner coming from behind gave me something to run away from. Going downhill just before the right turn into the finish I caught Jon and Jonny and went past them. I then made the turn and begun my sprint up the hill hoping they wouldn't catch me. I crossed the line fourth in 17:21 happy with my time but not knowing whether I had done enough for the team.

This was a 14 second improvement from last year and I may have even of dipped under the 17:20 barrier had I not been involved with the chaos at the start. It was great being involved in a race again and mixing it in with seniors. I think I made the right decision to not go with Jonny and the Eritrean at the start as I probably would've paid for it late on, so tactically I think I had a sound race. Like someone said to me, "you never forget how to race".

The end result was a bit gutting for us as we were only 5 seconds from bronze and 8 seconds off silver. But we had a great day and once we get all our famous faces back for the 12 stage we'll be back strong. Well done to all medallists especially Darren and co taking the gold for Bedford.