Aldershot Men's 6-Stage Road Relay, inc SEAA Championship, Rushmoor Arena
Bels kick like mules for a third Rushmoor win
The bare facts - that we won for the third successive year, by over a minute - don't do justice to what was a hugely exciting race. Rumours that Highgate Harriers would be strong were confirmed when Keith Cullen, Ben Noad and Ben Pochee were seen on course. Aldershot were without Chris Thompson and Chris Bolt but Harrow AC looked more than useful while Bedford and Newham & Essex Beagles always threaten.
Stage 1
As the steady drizzle transformed itself into a downpour, the starter's gun fired and Adam Leane got us away. "Leaney" hasn't been showing his top form for a while but having been diagnosed as anaemic and undertaking a course of treatment prior to his encouraging run at Wimbledon two weeks earlier, hopes were high for another advance. It didn't come. His run was probably on a par with his Surrey outing but "Leaney" was unable to get near his 18:29 of 12 months earlier. Harrow AC led a tight bunch including Thames, Shaftesbury and Wells City after stage one while our man came home in 24th, one minute and ten down.
Stage 2
Paul Freary splashed after the men ahead as the rain became heavier still. Soon runners were coming back to him as he took his first lap in 9:09 and started to dig in to attempt a similar second circuit. Fourteen men felt Freary's draft and in poor conditions he was right up to his normal high standard - but surprisingly the leaders had gone away by a further seven seconds as Dave Mitchison took the Beagles into a ten second advantage over Wells City with Bedford in third. Aldershot seemed to be shadowing the Bels as their first stage 25th was converted to a second stage 11th.
Stage 3
Having reduced his best time by half a minute last year, Jonathan Blackledge was fully expected to chop off more in 2004. He did! Doesn't this boy know how to give everything! The rain eased, and then stopped. A ray or two of sun peeped out for an instant to admire the sight of a Belgrave figure pulling back four more places. As he stormed the slope to the takeover area it was obvious that Jonathan had held back nothing and with legs buckling in the last few strides he touched hands with Kevin Nash. We were halfway but in spite of Jon running third fastest of the stage and 12th fastest of the day, Wells City were still over a minute up the road. The Beagles were in second, 17 seconds down, while Highgate had risen to third and still had Cullen to come. Maybe we could get into the medals.
Stage 4
With a summer season wrecked through a hip injury that had only cleared up a few weeks earlier, Kevin Nash was back into heavy training. Anything could happen here - but what did unfold was perfect. Positions three to six closed up together as "Nasher" pushed on, sat in and then made his move. The Bels were into third - alright, only by two seconds from Bedford - but with only a few weeks of running behind him Kevin was 21 seconds faster than his previous best for the course. His run was the key that unlocked the door to the impossible - we could win this! Bowditch had taken the Beagles a few strides ahead of Wells City but the leading pair were now just half a minute clear of a Belgrave team that had a kick like a whole rake of mules.
Stage 5
With barely a pause to regain breath after his track season, Stephen Sharp has trained on through and started running twice a day. With Maria urging him on in all he does, surely the time has come for a big breakthrough - and maybe that breakthrough started today at Rushmoor. Smoothly the men ahead were pulled back and Steve was snapping at their heels as he ended his first circuit, listening for coach Terry Noad to call out his time and getting nothing more than Belgrave screams of encouragement. "Well I wasn't going to tell you how fast it was," said Terry, "You'd have just worried about how you were going to do another lap at that pace." With the Beagles already discounted, soon it was Wells City plumb ahead and then drifting back behind as claret and gold hit the front. First words from Steve after the take-over were, "What time was it?" The reply of "seventeen ..." was drowned in a cry of delight.
Stage 6
Once the vision of a win had been allowed to enter our minds, the next dream was of a 30 seconds advantage before Highgate's Keith Cullen went out. In fact it was one and a half minutes. Frankly, Mark Miles was prepared to go out on Cullen's shoulder; such is the confidence of our man. Mark was completely in control as he ripped up the tarmac to totally destroy our club record for the course. Yes, Cullen did pull back a little as he set the day's fastest time, but Mark was second fastest - and he's not near top fitness yet. We could be in for a very exciting winter season.
As had been the case all afternoon, Aldershot's moves matched our own and they slipped into second but, like last year, they were pushed back to bronze in the dying seconds of the race, this time by Cullen as Highgate took the silvers.
What a race. New man John Clarke, introduced to us by Paul Evans, ran in the Bs but watched the A race unfold like the rest of us. "I've never been part of anything like this," he told us. "I can't wait for more of it."
1 Belgrave H 1:50:00; 2 Highgate H 1:51:07; 3 Aldershot Farnham & DAC 1:51:18; 35 Belgrave H B 2:04:51; Belgrave H C dnf; 80 teams started; 66 teams finished.
A - A.Leane (24) 19:13; P.Freary (10) 18:27; J.Blackledge (6) 18:11; K.Nash (3) 18:35; S.Sharp (1) 17:57; M.Miles (1) 17:37.
B - C.Axe (56) 20:31; J.Clarke (46) 20:21; B.Barton M40 (43) 20:51; J.Galley M40 (38) 20:43; R.Poulter (42) 22:26; M.Byansi (35) 19:59.
C - Don Anderson M45 (75) 23:40; A.Welsh (73) 24:33.
Fastest: K.Cullen (Highgate) 17:24; 2 M.Miles (Belgrave) 17:37; 3 S.Sharp 17:57 (Belgrave); 4 A.MacLean (Team Solent) 18:00; 5 B.Noad (Highgate) 18:01; 6 M.Smart (Harrow) 18:03; =12 J.Blackledge 18:11.
Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.