Author: Alasdair Blain
One of the premier events in English club running is the National Road Relays at Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield. Every spring, the top clubs meet to contest the 12 stage (men) and 6 stage (women) relays, whilst autumn sees the shorter 6 stage (men) and 4 stage (women) events, alongside junior relays at various age groups. The men have to qualify at Northern Road Relays a couple of weeks earlier, which TBH managed to do in Blackpool this September. As ever, qualifying is only half the battle; Tom then needed to round up enough men happy to undertake a 400-mile round trip to run 3.7 miles, just two weeks after making a 300-mile round trip to run 3.5 miles, which resulted in me being called up to complete what was otherwise a very strong team.
My day began picking up Paul O’Mara at Durham train station at 9am and we made good progress before hitting an inevitable series of road works as we got nearer to the Midlands. This did allow us a great view of a reported 5000 motorbikes travelling in convoy in the opposite direction towards the National Memorial Arboretum for a remembrance event.
After arriving at a, surprisingly sunny, Sutton Park an hour before the race, we met up with the others amongst the club tents and set about pinning numbers on the front (and back!) of our vests. It was nice to also catch up with a couple of ex-TBH members now running for other clubs. Once the racing gets underway, each runner tends to stick to their own schedule of warming up, changing and visiting the loo. As such, I braved the portaloos before a shortened lap of the course reminded me just how demanding it would be. A few drills and strides and then it was into the holding pen.
In terms of the race itself, men’s captain Tom Charlton gave himself the daunting task of first leg, handing over to Michael Hedley in a very creditable 49th place. Following Michael, Zak Kettle, Jake Dorman and Paul O’Mara all played their part in keeping us just inside the top 50 by the time I set off on the sixth and final leg. Having taken part in this event before, I’m all too aware of the standard, and as such my main aim was to limit losses rather than any aspirations of gaining any places. As Paul rounded the final corner, I took my place on the start line and was promptly complemented on my choice of socks for the day (a lovely pink, yellow and blue pair from Sporcks) by the lady on the start line, to which I replied that sadly they don’t make me any faster!
The course can only be described as brutal, but it has been the same 5.88km lap for the last 12 years so it does allow direct comparisons in performance. A fast downhill start into woodland is followed by a sharp uphill to the first corner, a steep descent to the left leads to the first major climb back to that first corner before you make your way up a straight but steady drag. The next kilometre allows some recovery before an undulating out and back beyond the famous ice cream van that seems to be a permanent feature marking the centre of the park. Returning there leads to a long downhill stretch where, if you’ve not overcooked it too much, you can look to make up time. I don’t think I’ve ever felt anything other than well done by that point though.
A final climb back up through woodland leads to the home stretch and a cacophony of noise as you beg for the finish line, cheered home by the rest of the team. In the end I’d managed to lose just two spots to bring us home in 50th position in a time of 1:57:07, an improvement of 9 places and over three minutes from last year, and I even bettered my best time from 2016 by a whole second. Job done!
After a few moments to compose myself, I made my way back to our base where we got a rare men’s team pic. It was then back to the car for four hours of quality athletics chat with Michael, only interrupted by the obligatory stop at Wetherby services to refuel with a Greggs pasty.
I’ve been fortunate to be able to take part in many editions of both northern and national relays, with this latest fixture being my third National six stage outing. It’s one of the few races where you literally race shoulder to shoulder with Olympians (Emile Cairess ran the fastest leg of the day for the victorious Leeds team, alongside fellow Olympian Phil Seseman), and the previous results are a veritable who’s who of British running.
I would encourage everyone to consider the Northern 12/6 stage relays that take place in Redcar next March. Whilst nationals can be a highly competitive event, the Northerns attract a much broader range of abilities, especially from more local clubs. It’s rare for these events to come to the North East so it’d be good to support it in large numbers and make the case for it to return up here more often.
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