ERRA National Women’s 4-Stage Road Relay

Sutton Coldfield, 4 October 2014.

Steady As She Goes

This was an ever-clinical display by the Belles as they keep things tidy in what is basically a ‘short, sharp shock’ of a race, and not where our specialities lie. But we turn up, get stuck in, and take our medicine on the day where the speedsters are wheeled out.

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Sophie kicked things off riotously. Top 30 was the aim, but she was way up on that and dealt well with the maelstrom at the start which often involves vaulting a fallen body (check) and some sharp elbows crashing into the rib cage. She’s been in great form this summer and fully deserves her current position of Queen of the Castle, with Tish and Sam unavailable.

It was the three year anniversary of Fee’s famous debut, and she went 12 seconds quicker here, although with a nasty virus only just cleared, was 10 ticks down on optimum, but it’s hardly shabby and we can anticipate another fine season from the spine of our squad.

We were then treated to a terrific run by Mel. Last year she toiled in the heady atmosphere, but my words to her on these pages were to let the quality she witnessed inspire her training, and a year on a full ¾’s of a minute has been removed. It’s always exciting to see a runner on the up and up, and let’s hope that Mel has masses more to come.

ZLD nearly talked herself out of the team on Friday with a lingering cold and a jumpy hip. But she really wanted to run and we weren’t about to discard our ‘woman of the year’ lightly and under close questioning kept her place. And it was the right call, as Zoe not only won a race long duel with Salford, but held off the very real threats of Tonbridge, Serpies and Liverpool. Oh! And not to forget our key foe Shaftesbury way up ahead who got DQ’d for goodness knows why.

1 Aldershot F&D 57:13; 2 Birchfield H 59:26; 3 Aldershot F&D 60:14; … 17 Belgrave H 1:03:54.  75 teams started, 60 finished.

Belgrave:  S Carter (23) 15:34; F Maycock (26) 16:22; M Wilkins (19) 15:42; Z Doyle (18) 16:16.

Fastest: 1 S Twell (AFD) 14:04; 2 L Partridge (AFD) 14:07; 3 E Gorecka (AFD) 14:09.