National 12 Stage Relays, Sutton Coldfield

This was a great win, in contrast to the dissapointment of last week in Ireland. A good first visit to Birmingham and I will have to catch a Villa game next time I'm in town.

For my Irish friends, the National 12 stage is an event consisting of Long (8.5k) and short (around 5k) legs in an undulating park in Birmingham. It lasts 4 hours and I have never seen anything like it!

I was the 3rd leg runner. Dave Mitchinson had us in a good 10th when he passed on to Bryn Reynolds, who held the position well. So off I went, going off steady so I wouldn't die. I tracked Dave Norman as he's a quality runner and I reckoned he would be good at pacing myself off. Other than that I did not have much of a plan as I had never been on the course before and only warmed up over a couple of kilometres of it. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail! Well that's a bit harsh, but my head was screaming "where the hell is the friggen finish" after about 24 minutes. I got to the finish anyway, in 26.47 and we were up to 5th. James Shane did a great job and got us up to 1st in 14.33. We yo yoed between first and second for the next couple of legs until later on when the boys extended the lead to 2 minutes. Steve Hepples brought us home in style in 14.40 and the celebrations began.

Whatever people say about Beagles I think they are a great club with great vision. They are such a help to broke students like me. Getting brought up to races and not having to worry about anything except running is great. Bob Smith is a gent and he brings together great teams for nearly every National competition. The guys in the team are very welcoming and I really enjoyed my time at Euro Clubs XC in February with Kairn Stone, Mitch, Skinner and Scott Sterling. The 'B' team did great with a lot of up and coming talent also.

The journey home was fun, as I got to take the mick out of Moumin, as Chelsea lost to Spurs. No hope of Villa getting Champions League now, but that's long gone I reckon.

Well done to all the Beagles and also the hundreds of other runners who took part in both the Mens and Womens races. It was a great day and you should be proud of yourselves.

Next race is BUCS outdoors in two weeks.

So until then.....

Chesser