Saturday 5 April 2008

National Road Relay Championships

You know I didn't even know it was the national championships, until I looked up the results tonight. I really thoughts it was just a wee club jolly.



Start of the race

Off to the glorious nature spot that is Livingston - the land of industrial estates, roundabout, dual carriageway and out-of-town shopping. Lovely. Thankfully the race is a well-organised, cheery and well-attended event. And believe it or not, the sun is shining.


(Is Sonic hiding a clipboard?)

The men's teams were divided in six. 3 x 3.2 miles and 3 x 5.85 miles. The female teams were made of of four - two of each.

I signed up on the basis that I could do a three-mile leg on an uncompetitive team. I'm still not entirely comfortably with racing short distances, so I used London marathon as the excuse. When captain Maz made a note of my interest, she wrote "not on Jill's team" beside my name.




Garscube Ladies Team C - Sara (alias Lady Sadie), me, Maz, Carol and mini mascot, Finn

I was the third leg on my team. The course was great. Lots of cheeky hills, breezy moments, smiley stewards, bit of trail and lots of cheers at the end. I managed to make up a few places. Isn't it funny how it seems to take forever to close the gap on someone in front, but takes no time at all to pull away from them? I finished in 23:14 (average 7.24). That's officially the fastest I've ever run. Not including reps, of course.


Some of the Garscube uglies

Marco's team finished in an amazing 9th position. Click here for full results.


Ali (Whippet) Winship and Coach Lesley. Carol, me and Jill.

3 comments:

Tim said...

Just goes to show how rubbish your 5K time was! ;-)

In good weather on a flatter course I'm sure you'd be nudging sub 7 minute pace for a 5K Debs. You'll just have to come down to Troon!

Well done on your PB pace for this tricky course though. It's been years since I've run it but I remember all the hills and the fun of chasing folk down to make up places

allybea said...

Just wanted to wish you luck for next week! And to say thanks for the card. I'm so glad you like them!

You've also inspired me to revive my WHWbackup blog. With only 70 odd days left to the big day (am I scaring you hehe!) I'm sure I'll have plenty of material.

I'll be thinking about you.

Ali x

Project White said...

I didn't realise this race was on until I pulled out of my street (which is just off the course) and saw someone run past - "he's going quickly" I thought to myself before realising there were four or five people in front of him also going quickly with race numbers and club shirts on!

Well done on your time and good luck at London.

John