Bob Houghton writes: “Last Saturday was the Midlands 12 / 6 stage road relay championships in Sutton Park and for the first time in many years Lichfield had entered both a mens and womens team.
We had over 23 members there as well as other supporters. The weather was mixed changing from bright sunshine to heavy hail storms. But we were well prepared with the club gazebo for shelter. Unfortunately the gazebo was only designed for fair weather and at the first sign of a breeze the frame began to buckle. By the end of the day we had changed two legs and spent a lot of efforts in trying to hold it together. The gazebo was clearly not up to the job but it did provide us with some welcome shelter on the day. We need to give some serious thought about a better tent if we are to continue entering these events in the future.
The runners performance was much better with some excellent performance by all
The womens course was a 6 x 3 mile relay with the following results:Lorraine Amos 23min 5sec
Emma Gaffney 27min 51sec
Julia Woodward 24min 53sec
Sarah Jemmett 23min 38sec
Sam Maunand 23min 13sec
Louise Pinfield 24min 40sec
The team finished in 36th position out of 49 starters and 38 finishers
The mens course was a twelve stage relay consisting of a 5.38mlie leg followed by two 3mile legs, the sequence repeated another four times. Results as follows:Andy Walsh 36min 45sec
Patrick Riley 17min 58sec
Neil Adams 19min 59sec
Matt Hinks 34min 14sec
Paul Keighley 21min 39sec
Alan Pritchard 22min 58sec
David Brayer 38min 17sec
Phil Gilingham 22min 36sec
James Shipman 22min 38sec
Nigel Dobbs 34min 53sec
Simon Pennock 20min 28sec
Xen Tzanbazles 20min 23sec
The team finished in 39th position out of 49 starters and 45 finishers
A big thank you to everyone who took part or just made the effort to turn up and support the teams. A special thank you to Phil Gillingham and Louise Pinfied who were not expecting to run in the morning but when they heard that we may not be able to field a full team they turned up and ran a leg. But the biggest thanks must go to Lorraine and Martin who were the team captains for the day and through their tireless efforts managed to get the teams together and organise everything for such a successfull event on behalf of the club.A full set of results can be found on www.race-results.co.uk/results/2008