Sat. 31^st March. 2007 Sutton Park

ALTERNATIVE RACE REPORT.

Got in the Park about 9:15 am. With the help of the trusty Tony Frain I  Nike tent,   So any way, at 10:00 am. Tent erected I thought I would frighten some squirrels in the park by going for a jog (dysfunctional shuffle). During this “jog” I came up with a fantastic story line for you all. Sadly, short term memory loss meant that by the time I staggered back to camp I couldn’t remember what it was. Worse than that, a slight recurrence of the Delhi belly I have had over the past few weeks meant I thought it unwise to indulge in my normal sausage and egg Bap.

I digress; on Wednesday we had three full teams, that’s eighteen runners. Sadly in the next twenty four hours five runners dropped out. That still left two full teams and Wendy. That’s how it stayed.

The Race.

A team.

Leg 1- Rachel Cook, stuffed with anti bionics, rattled round in 19:18, still 13secs. quicker than last year to came back in 19th, and don’t forget she’s in an age of diminishing returns.

Leg 2- Debbie Walters, running her first six stage is still improving by the week after injury; she gained 9 places to come back in 10^th with a time of 17:42.

Leg 3- Louise Harman, slipped to 12^th but ran a PB by 14 secs. and looked seriously blown out at the finish.

Leg 4- Claire Beaumont, “not last leg please, nor first!” ran another PB in 21:21 losing just 1 place to 13^th.

Leg 5-Amanda Dalkins, still building her training steadily to 60 miles a week, sounds about right to me, gained four places to 9^th with a time of 18:19.

Leg 6- Sally Latham, stepped in to the nasty last leg spot due to sister Kate falling down a hole. Although quite nervous, held 9^th spot in 20:23. Interestingly, she did manage to pin both numbers to the front of her vest; no mean feat given the size of the numbers, and the size of Sally.

B team,

Leg 1- Rachel Stenhouse, had 15 mins to swap numbers and prepare for this leg; see leg 2 for reasons, she had no problems though, other than running into the back of an Ambulance which had stopped  for a male runner  who couldn’t make the distance. She ran 22:49.

Leg 2 -Nicola Harrison, in only her second competitive outing, got to the Park in plenty of time; unfortunately she was two miles away in a different part of the park She got to the Tent 4 minutes before the start time, in a state of high dudgeon. Fortunately your TM had the foresight to swap her leg position with Rachel Stenhouse, so she had a brief respite. She ran 22:51.

Leg 3- Michelle Tanner, kept me waiting till I was getting twitchy, ran 21:15 off the back of a nasty virus.

Leg 4 -Sarah Capewell, who’s run just about everything I’ve asked her to this winter, although when I do ask she says “ I dunno, am I? “ any way she ran 21:54.

Leg 5- Holly O’Meara, was confused by the leg changes, so was I, she rushed from coaching at the Stadium, got changed, took her nose stud out; blew it, the nose not the stud! “Good stuff this Eh” she went round in 23:15.

Leg 6- Samara Booth must be a very bad girl, as soon as she started to run the skies blackened, the lightening flashed, and the thunder sounded; the rain was torrential so they tell me, I was in the tent. I didn’t think there was any point in both of us getting wet. She ran 27:34 in somewhat inclement weather. The team finished damply in 28^th.

C Team.

Leg1 Wendy Morant, texted me to say she was still in London, did I mind?

 Magnanimous as ever I said----------no.