Northern 12 Stage Relay

Despite some trepidation about racing this event today, and breaking my rule of "no threshold" work till my groin is niggle-free, I found myself on the coach out of Ilkley at 9am heading over the pennines into Manchester.

Despite a pretty poor course and some of the most dis-interested marshalls I'd ever seen in a race, it was generally well organised and an enjoyable day-out.

I noticed when we got there that most of the teams' average ages was in the late twenties, but ours was in the late forties. But we had our "A" team out, so was expecting a good result. We ended in 29th place (out of 48), which means we don't qualify for the National relays in a few months time. So a little disappointing, but we ran as fast as we could, all 12 of us putting in great performances. I ran the 4.9k in 17.50, about 5:50 min/mile pace.

The great element, from a personal perspective, is that I had no problems with groin - hardly a peep out of it during or after.

So now two weeks to press on with some consistent sessions including two long runs, and then into a 3 week taper.