Belles Crowned National Masters' Champions

In a performance of real dominance and quality, the Belles roared to a gun-to-tape victory in their maiden attempt at these championships.  The running order was a tough one to figure as we had two recovering marathoners and a club debutante.  The girls decided to kick-off with their biggest gun, which meant we were front-loading a tad, but none of us truly believed it'd claret and gold slogging up the finishing slope with a 40+ yard lead at the end of Stage 1.However, in the form of her life, Sophie did just that with yet another blinder.  She's becoming quite the local celeb around the Oxford area, popping up on the radio and in other media extolling the virtues of running.  Sutton Park's harsh slopes suit her, as they do all strength runners, and she took good care of her closest challengers Salford's Walker, Dargie of Tyne Bridge and Wilmslow's McVey.Lou has seen most things in her 13 years of Belles' service, including being a multiple National team marathon champion.  It will be a long while till anything matches the drama of her terrifying three-way duel at the Southern 4 stage of 2012, when we secured that amazing bronze; but this was no picnic.  Startled to be in the lead, Lou ran in mild panic for most of the way, imagining the awful moment when the entire field slips by.  But paranoia is no match for fitness and remarkably Lou proceeded to stretch SC's 10-second gift to a fine yet fragile 31.  Lou notes:  "Amazing to be at the front, never used to that!"Enter new kid on the block Kate Rennie, friend and training pal of ZLD, and better known as an ultra-runner.  Some club debut to savour!  'Thanks for joining, and now please go out in the lead of the National relay, and keep it - Ok?'  Didn't she just.  With our second best of the day, and the fastest of the stage, going even quicker than Clare Elms, Kate smashed the bowling to all parts of the ground, as those 31 ticks became a stunning 116. What a lovely buffer for Zoe, although she won't have known she had such luxury; and indeed when she turned on the switchback she saw noted England vets Internationals Lisa Palmer and Claire Martin hammering away.  "This made me run faster - such a relief to finish!"  Damage had been done to our girl, but it was all all far too late as the Belles' colours were calmly steered through the tape with nearly 400 metres to spare.A superb performance by a very talented and hard-working quartet.  Many congratulations from us all.

1 Belgrave H 1:12:38; 2 Heanor RC 1:13:53; 3 Telford AC 1:14:35; Tyne Bridge H 1:16:16; Tipton H 1:16:28.  35 teams started, 32 finished.

S Carter 17:25 (1); L Blizzard 18:50 (1); K Rennie 17:58 (1); Z Doyle 18:25 (1).Fastest:  1 M Woodward (RS Cold) 17:06; 2 C Martin (Telf) 17:13; 3 S Carter (Belg) 17:25.