Dead Runners society race report
Manchester to Blackpool road relay- sunday 30th May
2000.
A trip up north for a running visit to
my past.
evenin all
Hello folks,
Tony and Shelley here in Warrington at the
home of Tony's parents. We have been up north this weekend to visit Tony's
family and to do some running. We have both raced in separate relay events this
weekend.
Yesterday (saturday) we went off to Heaton
Park in Manchester where Shelley ran in the British veterans road relay
championship on an undulating 5km loop around the park. Shelley had been asked
to help make up a team for Spectrum Striders, Tony's home town club. Tony did a
lap of the course in about 26 minutes before the race started to get in his run
for the day, it was hard work getting round the course with all the hills.
Shelley ran the second leg of 3 for the ladies team, she felt she was running
well until she saw her finish time of 23.43, a minute slower than last week's
(flatter) 5km in Milton Keynes. Still she was running by herself most of the way
round and she gained a place for Spectrum Striders which our last leg runner
lost even though she ran faster than Shelley.
There were some great names from the past at
this event, we saw 1981-82 London marathon champion and former olympian Joyce
Smith at the event. Shelley asked her if she was Joyce Smith and she said that
"she used to be" :-) Joyce didn't look too good finishing her leg although she
is now 62 years old. She ran in the 1972 olympic 1500m aged 34 and the 1984
olympic marathon aged 46 so she has had a long career. We also encountered
Scotland's new star veteran dead runner, D.Thom of Ronhill Cambuslang Harriers,
all the way from Sunny Glasgow (TM) although we left before he ran. Nice to see
you again Davi.
Today (sunday) it was Tony's turn to race in
a relay. There was a 10 stage road relay between Manchester and Blackpool, Tony
ran leg 7, 6.6 miles between the exotically named village of Much Hoole and
Preston. Tony lived and worked in Preston 1985-90 so it was a trip down memory
lane. Unlike yesterday's relay in which each runner started when their clubmate
on the previous leg finished this was a series of stage races so as not to
spread out the runners too much along the congested roads of NW England. Tony
did about a mile before the race to warm up before waiting for the start of his
leg, this was supposed to start as the last runner finished the previous stage
but suddenly the stage started with no announcement as he was watching the
stragglers finish the previous leg and he had to chase off very fast after the
field :-( The back markers were soon passed and he was racing on the bike path
along the A59 Preston-Liverpool road, familiar territory from his old Preston
racing days. Around halfway he caught a runner from Blackburn and got a little
bit of a lead but Mr Blackburn came back, we were going very fast together as we
approached Preston and we passed a runner from Darwen. Both Blackburn and the
Darwen came back and got ahead on the long downhill to crossing the River Ribble
in Preston. He was reeling them in at the end at the Preston Docks shopping
centre but just ran out of road. On his watch he got 43.12 for 6.6 miles which
is 6.33 miling, a bit faster than he thought he would do although the long
downhill helped.
We got together at the finish of stage 7 and
Shelley lined up at the back of the pack for stage 8, she ran along without a
number on this stage to get in her training run (6.7 miles) and Tony drove from
Preston to Warton to wait for her at the end. After the end of this stage we
drove our stage 8 clubmate to back to Preston where his car was parked, there
were a few hardy runners jogging back along the course to Preston from Warton.
Then we drove to the seaside to see the finish in Blackpool. Spectrum Striders
finished 61st out of about 80 teams which wasn't bad considering that not too
many of our top runners were running for us today.
A nice day out, especially for Tony as he met
up with lots of old friends from his Preston running days, people even
recognised him as he ran along the A59 which was very nice. On the way home we
drove past where Tony used to live and work so that Shelley could see a bit of
his past.
--
Shelley Walsh and Tony Bell Milton,
Cambridgeshire, England Tiger@shells.demon.co.uk
Shelley Walsh - Shelley@shells.demon.co.uk <http://www.shells.demon.co.uk> Tony Bell - Tony@shells.demon.co.uk <http://www.shells.demon.co.uk/tonyweb.html> Photo Album <http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumList?u=74934>
previous race report next race report