Charlie Dickinson Writes

[ezcol_2third]The Belles scored an emphatic win at the Reigate Priory cross country relay, winning in the end by the huge margin of 83 seconds. Where other teams had perhaps one or even two fast runners, the Belgrave team of Rose O'Brien, Catherine Lovegrove and Keri Mackenzie proved what a strong core the women's team now have, all three in the top nine individual times of the day.

This long standing and popular relay provided a local alternative to the National relays held up at Mansfield on the same day. Belgrave men and women's teams have often taken part in the past and the Belles last won here in 2004. The course is 2.5 miles and a real mixture of pretty severe hills, fast hard paths and a start and finish on the undulating grassy playing fields. The event is really well organised with individual and team results displayed on monitors as the runners finish. It was also a lovely sunny day!

Mindful of her breathing problems in running the 'Bridges' midweek, it was a sensible and cautious start by Rose on the first leg. Running within herself on the first uphill kilometre, she waited until she got to the flat path round the back of the hill before easily moving through the field finishing strongly in 4th place less than a minute behind Karen Ellison of HHH who posted the fastest time of the day.[/ezcol_2third] [ezcol_1third_end]

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Catherine Lovegrove just gets better with every race. Walton came to into the lead as Herne Hill faded , but Catherine pulled up close in third just getting ahead of South London. Again, having walked the course beforehand, our team knew exactly how to pace their runs, and Catherine timed her run to perfection,reducing the lead to 40 seconds.

We joked beforehand, 'Rose and Catherine, just get round and leave it to Keri!'  Of course they had done a great deal more than that, but again, mindful of the first hill, Keri let the girls from HHH and SLH storm past. It didn't last long, Keri then left them for dead and closed down the Walton runner before halfway round the path at the back storming into the lead. Using male runners as pacemakers she continued pushing right to the finish winning by a huge margin and securing third fastest time overall.

Finally, a word about Lea Virchow, she came and ran first leg even though the others in the B team couldn't make it. She was also very much a part of our team effort.

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1. Belgrave 51.12 (Rose O'Brien 17.24, Catherine Lovegrove 17.13, Keri Mackenzie 16.35), 2. Walton 52.35, 3. SLH 52.36

Fastest times; 1. K.Ellison HHH  and G. Bland Dorking and Mole Valley 16.29, 3. K.Mackenzie 16.35, 7. C. Lovegrove 17.13, 9. R.O'Brien 17.24.