Women's SEAA 4 stage road relay, Bedford Autodrome, 25 Sept 2016

Belles Match the Bels - Both Place 24th

Charlie Dickinson writes:It was an enthusiastic if somewhat nervous quartet who made the journey to Bedford Autodrome for this years 4 stage road relay, moved from the traditional Aldershot venue.  An autodrome is not the best place for a road race on a very windy day. The course  was very flat, boring and disappeared into the distance for several stretches so not exactly spectator friendly. The toilets were miles away. However, our four women stuck to their task and were all very pleased with how they ran, expectant pre race times were blown away.Fiona Maddocks led the team off on what is always a mad rush first leg. Fiona kept her head sensibly, used other runners to shield herself against the wind, and came home in a very respectable time. Sally Underhill has spent a year overcoming injury and illness and was therefore very nervous before the start. She overcame those nerves wonderfully, learning from Fiona's advice not to start too quickly, and finished in the team's fastest time of the day moving the club up 9 places.Megan Bailey had come straight from visiting her grannie in Bath to help the team, what an inspiration to others! Expecting to run in the 20's, Megan easily beat that time running a very sound leg maintaining our position. Lastly, Helen White looking really strong, ran almost as fast as Sally and moved the team up to our finishing position of 24th.With joint team captain Jojo Rhodes also making the journey just to support her friends, it was a really enjoyable day with everyone supporting each other showing great team spirit.1 Aldershot F&D 1:02:40; 2 Windsor SEH 1:05:48; 3 Cambridge & Coleridge 1:05:59... 24 Belgrave H 1:14:17.  51 teams started, 42 finished.F Maddocks  18:41 (38);  S Underhill  17:57 (29);  M Bailey  19:35 (30);  4 H White 18:04 (24)Fastest:  E Hosker Thornhill (AFD) 15:03; J Judd (Chelmsford) 15:24; R Murray (Bedford) 15:31.