SEAA Women’s 6-Stage Road Relay

Belles seventh in third attempt at Southern 6-Stage Road Relay

Catherine Eastham writes:- With cool conditions and the first men back revealing how the wind seemed to be attacking them the whole way round, our women’s team prepared nervously for their third attempt at the Southern 6-Stage.

Stage 1

Having previously recorded the second fastest time for Belgrave women over the course, Juliette took the bull by the horns and set off with the very strong contingent on stage 1. Despite losing her chewing gum before the start (apparently Juliette always chews when she runs!) she managed to bring the Belles home in a respectable 14th place.

1 Bedford & County 19:09; 2 Highgate 19:22; 3 Windsor SE&H 19:35; 4 Blackheath & Bromley 19:45; 5 Headington 19:49; 6 Ealing, S&M 20:00; 14 Belgrave 21:01.

Fastest: 1 L.Wood (Bedford & County) 19:09; 2 A.Wingler (Highgate) 19.22; 3 R.Taylor (Windsor SE&H) 19:35; 4 S.Budd (Blackheath & Bromley) 19:45; 5 A.Hirst (Headington) 19:49; 6 F.Kennedy (Ealing S&M) 20:00; 14 J.Clark (Belgrave) 21:01.

Stage 2

New team member Rosie Powell proved herself to be a more than capable talent and definitely one to watch for the future. In her first ever fixture for the Belles she set off at a steady pace looking remarkably relaxed and comfortable and managed to pull the team up a further three places with our second fastest run of the day. Up front though, Natalie Harvey, an Australian international for SLH, managed to storm ahead 12 places to put her team into a clear lead.

1 South London (+12) 38:36; 2 Highgate (0) 39:07; 3 Windsor SE&H (0) 39:27; 4 Bedford & County (-3) 40:19; 5 Shaftesbury Barnet (+3) 40:40; 6 Blackheath & Bromley (-2) 40:58; 11 Belgrave (+3) 41:39.

Fastest: 1 N.Harvey (South London) 17:38; 2 J.Bleasdale (Hillingdon) 19:26; 3 E.Evans (Highgate) 19:45; 5 J.Clark (Windsor SE&H) 19:52; 6 L.Gallagher (Shaftesbury Barnet) 20:29; 7 R.Powell (Belgrave) 20:38.

Stage 3

Tania was next up and thankfully she broke her recent running history by completing her stage of the race. Despite having recently suffered from flu, Tania managed to pull the team up into tenth place with a solid 21.46 run. Meanwhile, the lead at the front had swapped to Highgate Harriers, although more about them later….

1 Highgate (+1) 59:21; 2 South London (-1) 59:33; 3 Bedford & County (+1) 1:00:01; 4 Shaftesbury Barnet (+1) 1:00:35; 5 Windsor SE&H (-2) 1:00:49; 6 Hillingdon (+2) 1:00:58.

Fastest: C.Hoyte (Arena 80) 18:25; 2 S.Miles (Hillingdon) 19:33; 3 K.Waterson (Bedford & County) 19:42; 4 C.Wilkinson (Shaftesbury Barnet) 19:55; 5 S.Hannah (Highgate) 20:14; 6 A.Bathie (Windsor SE&H ‘B’) 20:41; 13 T.Sturton (Belgrave) 21:46.

Left: Louise Cooper moved the Belles up another two places.

Photo by Patricia Mead

Stage 4

With the marathon only a week away, it was a surprise for us to have Louise Cooper on the team. Such a short course must have felt rather strange for Louise given her recent training schedule. Yet, despite all the distance training Louise managed to pull the team forward yet another couple of places with a 21.32 performance. Up front, South London had taken the lead yet again, making the race a little more unpredictable than the men's race which was spanning out around us….

1 South London (+1) 1:19:12; 2 Highgate 1:20:27 (-1); 3 Windsor SE&H (+2) 1:20:40; 4 Shaftesbury Barnet (0); 5 Hillingdon (+1) 1:22:19; 6 Bedford & County (-3) 1:22:27.

Fastest: 1 E.Baker (South London) 19:39; 2 P.Fudge (Windsor SE&H) 19:51; 3 M.Holland (City of Norwich) 20:28; 4 N.Cendrowicz (Highgate) 21:06; 5 K.Anderson (Headington) 21:10; 6 E.Grant (Hillingdon) 21:21; 7 L.Cooper (Belgrave) 21:32.

Stage 5

As the first of our husband/ wife pairings, Helen was pleased to see the claret and gold of our men's team at the same time as she was on the course. It’s good for the women to have someone to aim for! Helen achieved her goal time of sub-22 for her stage and was relieved to bring the team back in ninth place.

1 South London (0) 1:40:22; 2 Shaftesbury Barnet (+2) 1:41:07; 3 Highgate (-1) 1:41:17; 4 Bedford & County (+2) 1:41:56; 5 Windsor SE&H (-2) 1:41:58; 6 Hillingdon (-1) 1:44:18; 9 Belgrave (-1) 1:46:47.

Fastest: 1 A.Green (Shaftesbury Barnet) 18:59; 2 T.Galbraith (Headington) 19:10; 3 M.Lee (Milton Keynes) 19:11; 4 S.Morris (Bedford & County) 19:29; 5 S.Nicholls (Highgate) 20:50; 6 D.Kennedy (Thames Valley) 20:58; 10 H.Alsop (Belgrave) 21:50.

Stage 6

Saving the fastest for last, Maria Sharp set off quickly in her usual “chase them down” style. Having picked off 3 runners on the course Maria thought she’d done enough to pull the team into fifth spot, but sadly some of the runners she passed were from the previous stage. Despite this, Maria pulled the Belles into eighth place and achieved our fastest run of the day in 19.45. She still had the energy afterward to cheer on husband Steve as he brought the men’s team in for their record win.

Back to Highgate though. In spite of being the first team home, they ended up being disqualified for running a non-entered runner, so the Belles finishing place of seventh was unfortunately at Highgate’s expense. In a few years time the medals will surely be beckoning..

n/s Highgate 2:00:38; 1 South London (0) 2:01:13; 2 Shaftesbury Barnet (0) 2:01:26; 3 Bedford & County (+1) 2:01:45; 4 Windsor SE&H (+1) 2:01:54; 5 Headington (+2) 2:03:35; 6 Hillingdon (0) 2:06:20; 7 Belgrave (+2) 2:06:32.

Fastest: 1 J.Craft (Headington) 19:12; 2 S.Young (Highgate) 19:21; 3 M.Sharp (Belgrave) 19:45; 4 A.Berrill (Bedford & County) 19:49; 5 N.Ashe (Windsor SE&H) 19:56; 6 K.Armstrong (Shaftesbury Barnet) 20:19.

33 teams started; 22 teams finished.

Fastest legs of the day: 1 N.Harvey (South London) 17:38; 2 C.Hoyte (Arena 80) 18:25; 3 A.Green (Shaftesbury Barnet) 18:59; 4 L.Wood (Bedford & County) 19:09; 5 T.Galbraith (Headington) 19:10; 6 M.Lee (Milton Keynes) 19:11; 16 M.Sharp (Belgrave) 19:45; 34 R.Powell (Belgrave) 20:38; 164 runners.

Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.