Surrey County AA Road Relays, Wimbledon Park

Setting Fire to the Rain

Will Cockerell reports: Ahhh, the Surrey road relay; as curtain raisers go it's a bit of a peach. A fizzy atmosphere; a unique, head-fry of a course; lots of familiar faces and a few new ones. Breakthrough runs a plenty, blinders from left field and clunkers from those who hoped for more. I made my Bels debut at this one 15 years ago and the enjoyment and anticipation remains just as it did in '98. Running is a simple sport: 'go hard or go home'. We are all lucky to have it in our lives and I'm sure I'm not the only one of the 360-odd souls here to be looking ahead to the next eight months with lip-smacking relish.

To the gun and with the rain easing off I had a crack at the opener for the first time since 2002, and was joined by Runa, who's in town to observe Anne's pursuit of the world ITU W45 title on Sunday. Around 4 mins into my run I observed Paskar nonchalantly on his way to the venue... our leg 2! Now that ups the stakes on my approach to 'cutting it fine'. 8th place pour moi was followed a minute late by a stellar run by Northern Lightning as she bashed out the fastest ladies' time of the day by 18 ticks, a fortnight shy of her 44th birthday. Pure class.

With a 90 second warm-up and 8-miles with the morning training group he leads in his legs, PO zoomed round to the day's second fastest, and took us into the lead, before scuttling off to work. A busy bee and our heartfelt thanks for stepping in for us at late notice. Meanwhile, the Belles were matching the men's fireworks as we purred over a sparkling debut by new signing Mel Wilkins. We set her a tricky target to garner selection for next week at Rushmoor and she marmalised it with a terrific sub-18 turn. Mel has only recently started taking her running seriously after a few years of dabbling, so hopefully at just 23 she is at the gateway to a strong career.

HBR set off with nearly a minute cushion over a girl who loves to chase, but is no longer Chase - Annette Gould. It's Hester's two year Belles anniversary and she has given us a dozen fine efforts in that time including some critical ones like securing us Div 1 Surrey League promotion and team bronze at the South of the Thames. Anyway, a fine battle was enjoyed by these two warriors and the lead was only surrendered as they entered the stadium.

The lads meanwhile saw a solid but reserved Knut get slightly mauled by a hungry pack of wolves before handing over to Roy who is stepping up his game in style. An excellent 15:52 catapults him to the very heart of our engine room, and if he keeps improving at the same rate, will soon be at the cutting edge of our affairs. Next up Trygve who defied expectations, and managed to see off a nasty cold (and his darling wife by 29 seconds), only finally bowing to the Herne Hill man late on.

Back to the Belles and Zoe waited a couple of minutes before pouncing on Vikki Filsell - who ably anchored the Senior Thames team to Surrey gold - but gave best to Mrs Smith in the Open race. That leggy stride maintains its metronomic efficiency from pre-Isaac and Evelyn days and there's every hope that Zoe is to now return to her form of 2009 and beyond.

So while the Belles sighed contentedly at a job well done, we could relax and await the arrival of 'one-foot-dry' Rob Norville. Just 5 ticks down on last year, Rob smoothly carried us round in 6th in the open race, and our season is underway with much to anticipate.

Left. Knowing that good steeplechasers always manage to keep one foot clear of the water, Robert heads for the shallow end after a less than perfect splash-down at a recent league match.

Senior Men. 1 Thames H&H (n/s) 1:29:55; 2 Clapham C (n/s) 1:30:37; 3 Hercules W 1:31:06; ... 6 Belgrave H (n/s) 1:35:23. 22 teams finished.
W Cockerell (8) 15:35; P Owor (1) 14:17; K Hegvold (5) 16:22; R Maddams (5) 15:52; T Reitan (6) 16:06; R Norville (6) 17:11.
Fastest: 1 A Maud (Clapham C) 14:02; 2 P Owor (Belgrave) 14:17; 3 J McMullen (THH) 14:29.

Senior Women. 1 Belgrave H (n/s) 1:13:38; 2 Thames H&H 1:15:02; 3 Guildford&God 1:18:27. 14 teams finished.
R Bostad (1) 16:35; M Wilkins (1) 17:59; H Barsham-Rolfe (2) 20:25; Z Smith (1) 18:39.

Fastest: R Bostad (Belgrave H) 16:35; C Grima (HW W35) 16:53; R Wallace (Thames H&H) 17:09.

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