National Road Relays Birmingham Saturday October 18^th

The Harriers senior men’s team performed solidly in the national six stage relays in Sutton Park, Birmingham, finishing in 24^th position. Considering their 12^th place in the Southern qualifying competition this was a good result, but expectations are high these days and there was a sense of disappointment at what might have been.

Pete Grist opened proceedings; his time of 18.52 for the nearly 6km course was a good run, and his seemingly low position of 53rd reflected on the quality of runners on first leg. Jack Bancroft had not run in this event before and found the second leg a baptism of fire, nevertheless he held his nerve and finished in 63rd position. Ben Tickner then ran a storming 3^rd leg, overtaking 27 people and running Wells quickest time of the day with 17.31. Andrew Hennessy, despite having run a marathon and half-marathon in recent weeks, continued the good work with an 18.23 run, moving the team up a further 5 places.

Jon James then had a lonely run on leg 5, neither gaining nor losing places, but made up some time with an 18.49 run. Adrian Marriot then showed that he is well on the way to recovering from his recent marathon efforts, overtaking 7 runners to bring the team home in 24^th with an 18.22 clocking. All six team members ran wearing pink ribbons in memory of Angela Thomas, the club membership secretary, whose funeral had been held the day before and her presence at such events will be sorely missed.