9 intrepid A & T runners made the trip to Leek for the latest Road Champs race. It was billed as a tough, undulating course where expected finishing times would be at least 5 mins outside PBs. With this in mind and the accompanying hot and sunny weather I think we were all pleased to have some support, especially when, amongst others, it came in the shape of Mark Ruscoe, Terry Hughes and Paul Bohannon, who had completed their Bob Graham or Iron Man challenges in recent weeks. A special thanks to the kids with sponges (water, not syrup) at each of the stops as well!
There were around 250 starters and it wasn't long before I began to question Steve Coleman's (a Leek veteran) definition of an undulating start. Proper hilly being more appropriate!
With Pete Chan leading the A & T challenge, the rest of us followed with me keeping an eye on Steve Coleman, The Runner with No Name (TRWNN) keeping an eye on me, Terry G keeping an eye on TRWNN and so on ..... Unfortunately, the hills were unrelenting and it was very sad to see Steve pull up with what looked like a serious knee injury at around 6 miles. He managed to get a lift in the ambulance back to the start once he had convinced the paramedics that Lyndsay wouldn't be needing it today.
I unfortunately cracked a short while later and broke the cardinal rule of road running and walked, not once, but twice. Thankfully after TRWNN caught me and we had a brief chat, his words " I am going to push on .... as I want to beat you" were incentive for me to pull my finger out. He was also later heard telling Terry to "sod off" when he got too close around 10 miles.
I know we all found the course tough, especially in the heat and unfortunately Mary-Anne retired on route.
Pete was the first A & T runner home in 10th overall with 1:25:27. I finished in 1:36:42 followed by TRWNN in an amazing PB of 1:37:20. Terry was happy with his sub 1:40 after his 3 week break cruising round the Eastern Med. Brenda looked very strong finishing 10th lady and second in the ladies L45 with a great time of 1:43:54, whilst Lyndsay finished 30th lady in 2:02:30. Helen came in still looking strong in 2:32:18.
All in all a very hard, scenic race but I think we were all in agreement that a nice PB half would be good on the race calendar next year.
P.S. The men came second in the team event but if there were any prizes to be had we missed them as the presentation seemed to be held a tad early
1 comments:
good grief, that sounds like an horrific race!! Well done everyone!
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