Team manager’s tale
I picked up organising the ladies for the Millennium Way Relay a month before the event. It is a 50m long distance footpath, run in pairs over five 8-11m legs, starting at Bingley, with changeovers at Penistone Hill (Haworth), Laycock, Silsden, Ilkley and finishing in Bingley at the Bradford & Bingley Sports Club. 10 runners needed for a team and the route is not marshalled so they need to know where they are going.
Several ladies had responded to an earlier email to say they would like to run but barely enough for a team. I knew more would / could run so I set about some direct requests to catch those who had lost the email in the bottom of a deep Inbox, put off responding as it was too far away, not responded because they didn’t see themselves in the ‘off-road relay running’ picture or thought they were not fast enough to be part of a Bingley team. I knew I needed to get teams out quickly to give people time to ‘recce’ their routes. Within a week I was happy to put a first team out and was just waiting for a few more confirmations before issuing a second team. Having got 2 ladies team in view I was determined to hold them if I could – to give almost everyone who wanted to run (and a few who maybe weren’t so sure!) the opportunity to run. That meant getting 20 to the ‘start line’ on the day with a few precious reserves in place for last minute emergencies.
I had a list of over 50 ladies – asked, willing, available, injured, busy – and had gathered as many recent results as possible – Bingley 5k results, Park runs, Baildon Boundary Way, Bunny Runs, Over the Odda, Apperly Bridge Canter etc to help me pair up the runners and put them in teams. The great thing about Bingley ladies is once they have said they will do something it takes injury or a major crisis to make them pull out.
In sorting the teams out I also had to build in :
- 2 (at least) recovering from injury
- 2 returning from baby breaks
- 1 student only returning from university the day before (no recce)
- 2 living at a distance (no recces)
- 4 no transport for logistic on the day
- 6 new to off-road relay events and navigation
- 5 running further than they had ever run before
- 4 unfamiliar with Ordnance Survey maps
- 1 fasting for Ramadan (only found this one out after the event!)
There were loads of recces going on over the preceeding couple of weeks – all the legs are lovely – to run, walk, share with friends, take the dog etc – and absolutely looking their fresh green early summer best with lots of flowers and blossom, and plenty of cute calves and lambs in the fields.
I set time aside for recces and ran legs 1 (twice), 2, 3 (my leg) and 4 with various people – all of them a pleasure. I would usually hand over a route description or map and leave them to it and then keep quiet and stay behind. It is a much stronger learning experience if you are actively involved with navigating the many twists and turns rather than following someone else’s heels.
The last team revisions went out the Wednesday before the race. I kept my head down and held my breath – I even thought about unplugging the phone and computer on Saturday evening . I needn’t have worried. The teams held and, with the 2 men’s teams, we had 40 runners out on the day enjoying the event. Bingley Angels were 5th ladies team coming in close behind the leading 4 teams who all came in within a few minutes of each other. Bingley Belles were 11th ladies team. I was really chuffed for us to be in striking distance of the leaders and to get lots of great new experience in the club. Bring on next year.
The Full results are on the Saltaire Striders website – http://saltairestriders.org.uk/site/bmw-relay-results/ But the results only tell half the story in terms of achievements as some of the Runners tales will tell.
Millennium Way Relay Sun 28th June 2015 : Bingley Angels (45) and Bingley Belles (44) – A Runners Tale – to follow shortly!