Men’s 12 stage and Woman’s 6 stage.
Sutton Park Saturday 1st April 2023.
The main news for the day was we now have replaced the broken gazebo (RIP) with a new tent that is lightweight and quick to erect and looks very comfortable, so much so we had a job getting Nicola and Sarah out of it to run their legs! We were lucky with the weather again as the day before it was constant rain! But now we have cover for days when we’re not so lucky.
This year I’m pleased to report we fielded a full team of men and woman, an improvement on last year when the women didn’t compete, and the men fielded an incomplete team of 10.
Well done to the girls, Laura W, Alex, Lena, Tara, Nicola and Sarah. Who improved on 2019’s time 3:49:41 to 3:42:54 and 57th position. Special thanks to Laura and Chris D who were there all day supporting and Dave and Leah K who were ready to run if needed.
The men finished in 47th with a combined time of 5:19:23, improving on our last entry pre lock down, 2019’s 50th place in 5:21:12, so a definite improvement.
Oli went off first and somehow found himself at the front of the pack! He did a great job of trying to control his pace and finished 46th, then Dom -17(who ran the early leg so he could watch Albion draw 0-0), Daniel +2 and Ryan +9 completed the four long legs that take you from the jamboree stone all the way to Streetly gate and back, 5.38 miles in total. The short legs, 3.16 miles, were then ran by Tom 0, James 0, Och -1, Greg +3, Chris C -3 and then finally Pete -1, Myself +4 and (back that morning from skiing in Italy if you didn’t know) Ben +3 were in the mass start. So overall we only fell back one place from the first leg. A great result by all!
The Men’s 12 stage was won by Birchfield Harriers in a total time of 3:58:10 (an improvement on last year’s 4:00:36 and 3rd place) followed by BRAT’s (5th last year) and Western Tempo took 3rd place. (4th previously) Pushing last years winners Notts AC into 4th place. Great running by two of our local teams.
It’s great that we have this race right on our doorstep and an honour to represent West Bromwich Harriers. We’re back training in the park from this Wednesday and our first grand prix race is at Sutton Park on Saturday.
Hope to see you all there, all marooned up!
Karl.
West Bromwich Harriers 