Midland Women’s Xc Relay Championships 3 & 4 X 6k. Brooksby College, Wreake, Leics.

Sat. 7^th Oct. 2006.

RACE REPORT.

Normal service is resumed, this is a Saturday evening report, thus, basking in the euphoria of my second “Cuba libre” (ask a friend) I will attempt to describe the events of the day. All characters are entirely fictional and any similarities to real people alive or dead, purely accidental. So are the times, probably.

Getting lost on the day awards went to Amanda Dalkins and Simon Hall. Getting there too early award went to Sarah Capewell’s Dad who arrived yesterday!

It were a real nice day, bright and sunny, but with a gale force wind that had a bit of a bite to it.

The course was dead flat from where I stood, but our lot were moaning about huge hills in the distance needing crampons and the like, typical.

We fielded three full teams in the ladies section and one and a quarter in the men’s.

THE RACE.

Team 1

Amanda Dalkins, who didn’t get very lost, is improving with every race did exceptionally well on the fast first leg which included fast runners not in complete teams and came back in 5^th.

Rachael Rowberry, stepped into the 1^st team at  the eleventh hour, but improved our position to 4^th, though actually she maintained status quo because for some reason Jane Potter from Charnwood had decided to run leg 1 alone which meant that team ceased to exist, are you keeping up?

Actually Jane Potter ran fastest leg of the day. No brainer or what?

Emma Phillips, who’s five stone seven and, due to new Government regulations, now has to use a booster seat, was in serious danger of being blown into the next county. Somehow she wasn’t, I think she wears magic socks. Anyway she went off like a train, a little train, and ran a great last leg to bring us home 3^rd.

TIMES

Amanda Dalkins, 27:01. Rachael Rowberry, 30:42. Emma Phillips, 27:01. 

TEAM 2

Rachel Cook, only a couple of weeks after running the Berlin Marathon, spoiled the accuracy of my team selection by running 30:19. c’est la vie.

Louise Harman, ran with one eye shut, don’t ask! But still ran a creditable 32:21

Sarah Capewell, at last a girl who’s come through our system finally runs for me, sorry, the Club in a senior team. She is at that crucial age, what Uni? Which course? What about my boyfriend, Off very little training and waiting around for the boring last leg if you’re not in contention still managed 33:10. 

TEAM 3

Claire Beaumont, said to say she ran c..p  so I have, actually she was running a week after the Great North Run, which also preceded two weeks of enforced no  training, so I don’t think she did too badly to run 33:02.

Rachael Denham, seems a really nice reserved young lady, makes me feel a bit loud and noisy. You can all stop nodding now, ran a steady 36:41.

Wendy Morant, what can I say? sporting a Mohican hair style, the remaining hair being a delicate shade of vermillion sprinted off into the distance, and sprinted into the finish, and in between clocked up a time off 39: 43, which is fine by me because I hate  incomplete teams 

THE MEN’S RACE

James Trollope, has the attitude that he should always win, oh how we could do with some more of that. As a young senior he did exceptionally well to come back in 3^rd place before collapsing in a heap.

Simon Hall, who has been plagued by injuries in the early part of this year, lost just a couple of places to come back in 5^th.

Marc Turner, had a solid run and maintained 5^th.

Gerry Timmins, is one of the Clubs longest serving distance runners and one of the most reliable, and he was only too pleased to be drafted into the 1^st team at short notice. He was also pleased that we had slipped from a medal placing so he could relax a bit. He still held on to 5^th place, our final standing.

TIMES

James Trollope, 22:19. Simon Hall, 23:41. Marc Turner, 24:36. Gerry Timmins, 26:01 

As a result of everyone bailing out on Pat and me my garage now has seven prizes, and I hope the men like choccys  because there’s four huge tins of Quality Street, which keep winking at me as I walk past.

Eddie Cockayne,