job done at sutton park

well after all the talk notts ac won the midland road relays for the men yesterday and charnwood won the 6 stage for the womens. tipton harriers were 2nd with OWLS 3rd and bristol 4th, whilst an under strength bristol womens team got silver with telford taking a very distant bronze medal. i ran my leg in 17:25 it is a very tough course which really runs equivalent to a 5k even though the actual distance for the short leg is 2.995 miles, which equates to 4.792 kilometers. it is a very similar leg to the mens leg in the autumn six stage relays, where you go up the long drag at the start for about 2 miles do a lap of the road up to the keepers gate and come back down, but this time instead of doing the lap to the keepers gatewe turned right and when we went past the lake we did a left turn and did a short lap of the woods and came outsome where at the bottom just before we went up a hill that was the start of the finish straight. of the people who ran yesterday for the a team that was blighted by unavailabilities and injuries there were some under par performances such as those of nigel leighton (2005 brighton 10k winner) who did the 5.6 mile long leg in only 28:30, or rob whalley who recorded 27:26 compared to his best time which is close to 25:30, but he will probablyy never regain that sort of form.

as for my self well that was 14 seconds below my 5k best so given how hard the course is that would be roughly equivalent to what i would do for 5k on the course i set my pb. there was a bit of confusion over my time when it was initially published at 17:47 when my watch had said 17:25...so in to the officials tent i went and informed them of their error, which they denied any responsibility for as only officials can do...then promptly corrected the error. it did also make me smile when i caught mike richards of clevedon. his son is my sisters boyfriend and he was on the same leg as me. he was out of sight in front when i started and out of sight behind me when i finished. but the main thing is that this has given me some thing to work on for the national in two weeks time. that race has been blown wide open by the news that newham and essex beagles international superstars mo farah (european cross country champion) and michael east (commonwealth 1500 meter champion 2002, 3:32 pb) are both definitely out of the race with injuries. the main contenders look like being bristol (if we can get everyone out) notts ac, tipton (who were at full strength yesterday) aldershot farnham and district, leeds city, belgrave harriers enfield and harringey if ben noad runs, gateshead harriers and morpeth plus may be a few others that i haven't thought of. managed my 12 mile long run this morning along the portishead to clevedon coastal path which is much tougher than the road. needless to say my legs were sore...