Green Belt Relay 2012 Day 1

What a day it has been so far. It is the first time that we have had 3 teams at the GBR. 2012 is the awesome year! We have a fast team for the first time!

Tappo went off on leg one and came in 3rd. Steve Barber came in 4th on leg 2. Richard got lost on 3 and came in 12th, despite running 1.33 for 14 miles. Ace.

Then the man Smithy came to the fore....

And the Letty Green leg was a monumental 4th place for Mr Cool himself. LEGEND.....

Onwards and it was the turn of our club record holder...out of retirement Paul Griffiths for a crazy 2nd place!!! He is hiding in this photo........keeping out of the limelight until the end.

......and Mangioni came in 5th....Something was a foot part way through day one in that a dream, a small snippet of a dream became reality when not only did our lovely tiny little running club get a top ten place, but we started pushing for something a bit more serious......we put down a marker that let the Capital know that we were not the whipping boys anymore......that we had a great bunch of runners.

and the dream started to become a reality....

Spenser held the Great Marlow leg well and Eric mashed up the North of the Capital in 12th place........TP was next...fresh from his VLM PB.

The dream started to become a reality on leg 11, the last leg of the day. Not that I am a self promoter but I was shitting myself all day. I don't think I have been as nervous leading up to a race than for this. I just did not want to let the boys down! I had run 250 miles in the last 3 weeks and had 4 days recovery. Shot to bits I had been driving and marshalling all day. Thank goodness for Lily and the lunch at her restaurant. Marshall point x2 later and I was at the start of the Toot Hill leg.

I went off too fast. My first mile was an exuberant 5.56, followed by a 6.04. Too fast. I slowed to a 7.15s pace as we hit the fields and forests of Epping. undulating farmland opened out into vast expanses of skyline, punctuated by the spires of (not doubt) Godfearing Essex-types....through fields of face high oilseed rape, pungent and dosing eyes and cheeks with sneezeworthy pollen, whilst the deep ruts of tractors prevented even cadence.

Mile 3-4 I suffered and mile 5 was a quagmire of stentorian proportions.......arrrgghhhhh, the Garmin hinted at a 9  in mile! I had to put a stop to this at once.......with a Serpy, a Dulwich Runner and a Clapham Chaser, I hit the gas and found that I had plenty in the tank. The last 3 were 6.45s and the last half was 6.20s! Very muddy and very happy to happy to glance back and see the other club in Dulwich about 200m behind I huzzed it to the line.....

So I didn't let down the boys. I came in 7th and ran a 6.45s XC hilly run. Fucking brill. Still buzzing and so glad that we are now 6th in the competition.