ERRA National 6-Stage Road Relay, Sutton Coldfield
Seventh heaven in Sutton Park
Don’t you just love the relays!
The traditional 6-stage events come at a funny time of year. Those runners that thrive on the road or country have barely got into their stride in September/October while those whose favoured terrain is the all-weather track are coming off post-summer breaks. This autumnal timing makes for unpredictability and the very best of teams can find it difficult to turn out a strong six.
No such problem for the Bels on this occasion though; they were more preoccupied with trying to squeeze a 12-stage foaming pint of talent into a half-pint 6-stage pot without spilling too much. There were three different faces from our victorious line-up of 2007 – Nick Goolab, Steve Davies and Neil Speaight – but it could so easily have been more had Russell Dessaix-Chin arrived in the UK a few weeks earlier or Dan Mulhare not been involved in following the Irish trail to the Euro-Cross.
The boys were confident of “getting up there” and maybe getting close to the course record – but were all too aware that even this might not be enough to hold off the improving Notts and Bedford teams, the ever-present Beagles, giants of former years Tipton and Blackheath, Southern rivals AFD and of course the massive depth of the machine that is Leeds City AC.
Sharpy's quest
Sutton Park was at its blustery best, although the runners were in no mood to admire golden leaves being plucked from swaying trees and gusted back into their faces. Stage one seemed more loaded than ever as runners undertook their pre-race rituals and our own “Sharpy” sucked in some deep breaths before starting the quest for his thirteenth National team gold medal – never mind the silvers, bronzes and area titles.
“Just come back in as close as you can to the lead, Skipper. Maybe 5th, maybe 12th. Just a good solid start.”
In fact Stephen ended up 11th among a stream of runners with nothing much between them. Ryan McLeod of Elswick headed the bunch but his was a team of just one man while other outfits flattered by being patently “front-loaded”. In 20th place came James Kelly, improving on his recent form and taking our B squad ahead of expected rivals Notts, the Beagles and Aldershot. Leeds, however, were way off the pace in 60th and although they impressively recovered to 6th by the end, they were unable to get back to the real action.
Not yet 19, Nick Goolab was being exposed to the unpredictability of the second stage. Having seen the Skipper heading back towards the end of the first stage inside the top dozen, our spectators out on the course were startled to see Nick’s unmistakable smooth style silhouetted on the ridge and moving into 4th … and then 3rd. Andy Vernon was charging through the field to take Aldershot up 34 places, Pollock of Kent was on a rise of 32 but amidst typical stage two volatility some teams were dropping like stones with Severn plunging no fewer than 63 places! Nick was surfing along at the head of this turbulence and finally ran through the takeover zone in second place having set the fastest time ever by a Belgrave under-20.
But not everybody was enjoying themselves. Mark Pollard’s five-week foray into foreign climes had not gone as planned, a foot injury curtailing his training just when he wanted to get some real miles in. “Polly” on the roads of Sutton Coldfield was not the man we have seen previously picking up team golds or twice winning Scottish cross-country titles. Like the Terminator – he’ll, “be back. No problemo!”
Winchester & District have been making great strides in the South – no doubt due to the efforts of coach Nick Anderson – but the surprise of seeing them at the head of the field after two stages was further increased when they were still to be seen leading the procession a lap later, thanks to Tom Payn; but the Hampshire club were only five seconds up on Aldershot with Bristol & West now in third, the Beagles in fourth and our own Steve Davies in 5th. Only fourteen seconds covered the leading five teams.
Steve sent out Simon Jones, another to have been experimenting with altitude training in Morocco throughout September. At the Great North and even the Chichester 10k he had been experiencing the slump that sometimes comes with a return to home conditions and was hoping that this day would be the one where things improved. Whilst being rock solid and moving the team forward to second again, seven seconds behind Newham & Essex Beagles, Simon still wasn’t happy with his run. But times aren’t always everything and the team was right where it ought to be.
"I need to open it up then ..."
But as Simon was nearing the end of his lap the Team Manager was outlining the state of play to Phil Wicks, due out next:
“This is going to be close. Sim’s going to be very near the front but The Beagles have got Moumin Geele on the last stage – we really need to give Sp8y as much as we can.”
“So I need to open it up a bit then,” was Phil’s understated reply; and then he was away.
How much would we need? What shape was Moumin in? The Beagles manager Bob Smith seemed to think that 30 seconds would be enough for their man to lock onto ours for the final tour of the Park.
The news came back that Phil had moved ahead and was 30 seconds clear – but they were not much more than halfway round – and our own manager peered anxiously towards the distant gap in the trees, looking for a sighting before setting his own watch running. There was Phil. Now, what was the gap? Thirty seconds gone, thirty five … “it’s forty!” And by the time Neil Speaight was away it was a fraction over three-quarters of a minute. A fabulous run Phil – surely our first ever sub-17 – 16:58 or 59 by our calculations – but sadly officially recorded as 17 dead.
Behind Phil, Ian Boneham of Notts had also run well, coming up five places, and Raeside (Notts) and Geele (Beagles) were away on the last leg more or less together. Could they work off each other and reel Neil in, surely not, but we never take anything for granted.
Showing an unusual amount of agitation now, the TM was screaming into his cell phone to Belgrave supporters out in the Park. “Give me some information. What’s the gap? Are they catching him?”
Back came the reply: “They’re approaching the out and back section now and it’s … 47 seconds …”
“What! He’s holding it.” Raeside and Geele seemed to be playing it a little cagey before finally ripping lumps off each other in the dying section of the stage; and all the time these two had been watching each other, Neil had been burying himself over the early part of the leg. “I didn’t want them to even think that they might catch me.” What an attitude and what a team.
Neil had gone through the finish and was receiving congratulations long before Bruce Raeside and Moumin came up the hill, shoulder to shoulder … and then, just at the end, the Beagle faltered … and Notts had the silver medals.
Consistency
Studying the times after the heat of the battle it was amazing to see the consistency of the Belgrave splits. Five men in the A team had run within fifteen seconds of each other in the mid 17s, only Phil’s outstanding club record of 17:00 being out of the norm. Every other team had strayed into eighteen minute territory. And in the B team, Paul Freary had run 19:09 on three followed by Graeme Hyett just a second slower on four and then Shaun Moralee exactly matching Graeme’s time on five. Will Cockerell, rounding off for the Bs and torn between hanging on to see the outcome of the race and getting his own run under way, was a mere four seconds slower. So there we had five men within 26 seconds. James Kelly’s first B leg of 18:01 was worthy of a spot on any other team in the Park while A runners Phil’s and Nick’s times were superb in the prevailing conditions.
1 Belgrave H 1:45:18; 2 Notts AC 1:45:50; 3 Newham & Essex Beagles 1:45:51; Bristol & West AC 1:46:41; 5 Sale H Manchester 1:47:11; 6 Leeds City AC 1:47:47; … 34 Belgrave H ‘B’ 1:54:19; 79 teams started and 71 teams finished.
A – S Sharp (team position 11, ranking on stage 11) 17:37; N Goolab (2, 7) 17:34; S Davies (5, 10) 17:40; S Jones (2, 6) 17:51; P Wicks (1, 1); N Speaight (1, =3).
B – J Kelly (20, 20) 18:01; M Pollard (40, 57) 19:35; P Freary (39, 39) 19:09; G Hyett (35, 33) 19:10; S Moralee (35, 33) 19:10; W Cockerell (34, 27) 19:14.
Fastest: 1 A Vernon (Aldershot F&D) 16:49; 2 S Overall (Blackheath &B) 16:54; 3 P Wicks (Belgrave) 17:00; 4 K Gerrard (Newham &EB) 17:05; =5 R McLeod (Elswick), T Russell (Bristol &W) 17:06.
Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.