Midland Counties Autumn Road Relays - 19 September
The event held annually in Sutton Park sees the best clubs from the Midlands competing to qualify for the National Championships. Runners have to cover a 5.43km undulating course with a relay of six athletes. The modified course for this year’s event introduced another punishing hill in the opening stages. With many of the club’s members committed to other races over the weekend, the assembly of Striders teams was more challenging than usual, sadly with no women’s team representation but ten of the men’s squad made the journey to field an A team and an incomplete B team.
The Striders A team consisted of Max Harrison-Tossato, Tom Burgess, Louis Jones, newcomer Dan Egan, Lee Ormerod and Will Pearce. With captain Adam Greenwood leading the charge for the B team, backed up by debutant Adam Harrison, Liam Richardson and Joel Freeland
Max, a veteran of the road relays from his time at Swindon Harriers, enjoyed his first leg 1 experience in the mass start and ran superbly to set the Striders up in 40th position. Front loading the team with our strongest available runner would always mean Tom Burgess had a tough job on his hands taking over on leg 2. Burgess ran well to cross the line with the Striders in 52nd place, the remaining 4 legs saw the team hold a similar position with strong runs from Louis Jones, Dan Egan and Lee Ormerod, all of whom were making their first appearance in the road relays. Will Pearce had a tricky task on his hands, setting off on the 6th and final leg neck and neck with the in-form Andrew Kaighin of Cheltenham Harriers. Kaighin showed Pearce a clean pair of heels in the opening stages of the leg and never looked back. Pearce got the job done and brought the team home in 51st place (once the omitted Bristol & West were reinstated in the final results)
Adam Greenwood had a pleasing run out on leg 1 for the B team, with Adam Harrison following up in fine fashion on his club team debut, gaining 6 places from where he took over. Liam Richardson and Joel Freeland both victims of ongoing achilles issues also enjoyed a solid run out to complete proceedings With just the top 25 A team’s advancing to the National Championships, the Striders placing of 41st A Team wasn’t to be enough on this occasion. No matter the outcome, the team had a thoroughly enjoyable experience and the club looks forward to returning to Sutton Park next year for the 6&12 Stage relays in April and also fielding a ladies team once again.
Special thanks to Tom, Lee, Will and Liam who all raced with pride for the club despite having a half marathon to run 18 to 19 hours later!
