Northern 12 + 6 stage relays including young athletes 5k – Redcar
The club had another set of full teams for the 12 and 6 stage with this year’s addition being at Redcar coast road with a beautifully flat road presented to all of us on a straight out and back course to ensure fast times, PB’s and getting as high a place as possible on the day. However as with everything all of that sounds too nice so with it being Redcar seafront you had the addition of the wind, a lot of wind, very “conveniently” being a headwind at the turn around point to ensure you had the second half of the race into the wind.
Anyone with memories of two years ago would realise It didn’t rain so that was something.
Under 17 5k
The day started off with the Under 17 women 5k championships. 18 athletes lined up Hatti made the most of the tailwind and found herself in 3rd by the turn around point at 2.5k, turning back into the wind made the brave decision to attempt to pull away from the group and chase down the leader. Although she was unable to catch the leader, she destroyed the field behind her. Finishing 1 minute clear of 3rd (Rosie Thistlewood, Wakefield) and within 21 seconds of first place (Jasmin Wright, Salford). The added bonus of 2nd place was the fact that Hatti now joins the exclusive list (of 2) of people who have won northern championship medals for the club.
| Hatti Stead | 18:35 | 2nd |
Women’s 6 stage
Next up the senior women lined up for their six stage relay with two long legs – 9.5k (1st and 4th) and 4 short – 5k (2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th) being 2 laps and 1 lap respectively
We got underway with Elisabeth who had the unenviable of having to chase a former commonwealth games 800m finalist. However, put in a gutsy run and finished her long leg in 49:09. 2nd and 3rd leg were to be run by Maresa and Mandy didn’t have the privilege like the 1st leg runners of using the starting pack as a wind break, powered through the headwind and 26 and 30 minutes respectively. Kaye endured a very exposed and windy long leg in , the team rounded off with Joanna and Fiona guiding the team home to 36th place
| Cumulative time | Leg time | |
| Leg 1 (Elisabeth Middlemas) | 0:49:09 | 0:49:09 |
| Leg2 (Maresa Bell) | 1:15:19 | 0:26:09 |
| Leg3 (Mandy Dixon) | 1:45:56 | 0:30:37 |
| Leg4 (Kaye Collins) | 2:32:56 | 0:46:59 |
| Leg5 (Joanna Hughes) | 3:01:05 | 0:28:09 |
| Leg6 (Fiona Bell) | 3:34:24 | 0:33:18 |
Men’s 12 stage
The mammoth 12 stage relay consisted of 4 long legs (1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th) and 8 short (all the others) with the goal of finishing in the top 25 A teams to qualify for the national road relays.
We kicked off with Duncan exploiting the main pack by using them to block the wind in the headwind sections and guide us home in 20th place, lee managed to fight some bad shin pain to Hand over to Jordan B who had an unenviable isolated run on the headwind but not the tail wind to hold a position of 22nd some excellent runs from Jordan M and Ash held 22nd for the following short and long leg. David G but in an efficient 19:30 5k, Gary being consistent as ever rounding off the long legs in 33:38. Jon and Mark got around unscathed with us still in contention in 25th and which teed up a PB from George in just under 20 mins which lead us to the mass start (in essence everyone who hadn’t started by 4:15 were all set off together) so Ben and Dave B were set on their way as we started in 25th place with the mass start Dave B had a good run through the field and finished in 18:11 however run of the day possibly belonging to Ben knocking off an unbelievable 2 minutes off his PB to throw himself over the line in 18:30. However after several hours of result changes Disqualifications, reinstations, wrong leg times eventually confirmed, despite holding a top 25 place from the outset, Darlington pipped us to 25th place by having the two fastest times in mass start and we lost out by an agonising 40 seconds after nearly 5 hours of running.
| Cumulative time | Leg time | |
| Leg1 (Duncan Hughes) | 0:31:57 | 0:31:57 |
| Leg2 (Lee Mccarron) | 0:51:00 | 0:19:03 |
| Leg3 (Jordan Bell) | 1:23:28 | 0:32:27 |
| Leg4 (Jordan Meikle) | 1:42:24 | 0:18:55 |
| Leg5 (Ashley Slavin) | 2:16:04 | 0:33:40 |
| Leg6 (David Grimes) | 2:35:35 | 0:19:30 |
| Leg7 (Gary Wallace) | 3:09:14 | 0:33:38 |
| Leg8 (Jon Dodds) | 3:30:27 | 0:21:12 |
| Leg9 (Mark Temple) | 3:49:34 | 0:19:07 |
| Leg10 (George Day) | 4:09:32 | 0:19:57 |
| Leg11 (Ben Heckles) | 4:28:02 | 0:18:30 |
| Leg12 (David Best) | 4:46:13 | 0:18:11 |
The club would like to extend all its thanks to everyone who competed and spectated on a very long day (especially on mother’s day) your efforts are all very appreciated. I think I can also safely speak on behalf of everyone that we don’t want to see a windy day for a while
Coniston 14
Monika travelled over to the lakes to race around Coniston water in prep for her marathon in a couple of months’ time. Monika had been able to achieve a good time and get home just before the weather rolled in.
50th Monika Molnar 1:54:17
Grasmere 10k
Lauren and Jasper tackled the 10k cani cross at Grasmere coming home in 3rd place with some small assistance of gravity with Lauren falling at some point and Jasper being far from impressed with her owners tumble
3rd Lauren Young 53:07