Bingley Ladies were heading for two teams until a last minute family emergency drop out. With no reserves left Gordon Kaye stepped in as an “honorary lady” (thankyou Gordon) and the B team became an Open team. Nevertheless getting 19 ladies out including 5 new to relays was a great success.
Our 3 “brand new” ladies were Lisa Pearson and Laura Meadowcroft who run on Thursday evenings, and Tamsin Treasure-Jones who has run some local fell races while supporting her son in the junior races. Our 2 “new” ladies were Becky Holmes, a comfortable road runner, with a 3.40 London marathon under her belt, not too keen on hills and had a challenging run on the Gathering Winter Fools Relay with Mary Green, and Lesley Watson, who had a good Calderdale Way run paired up with Sue Fulton. Jo Buckley and Ruth Whitehead gave the A team a strong start – special thanks to Ruth who had raced the championship Buckden Pike the day before. Mandy Clarke and Eleanor Kitchen, from the flat lands of York and Scunthorpe, enjoyed the hills & moors of Leg 2 from Marsh to Laycock and held the team in a good place. Rachael Sharples and Meryl Dodd had a great run on Leg 3 over to Silsden beating their 2012 time by 6 minutes.
Becky Weight and Lesley Watson were heading for a good time when Lesley, who had been working hard, went down with heat exhaustion in the last mile and needed medical attention. Talking about this afterwards we decided a couple of things had contributed all of which can be avoided or managed in the future. Many of us have had similar experiences, learnt from them and come back better runners and Lesley (and myself) will be the same. On Leg 5 Marisol Carrera- Vivar lead out from Ilkley at a strong pace giving them a good position on the narrow paths. Mary Green then kept the pace going (enough to keep Marisol quiet – most of the time!) over to Bingley in a team time of 7hrs 48ms The “Ladies” B team were anchored by Becky Holmes and Alison Marks. Becky, really enjoyed her run with Alison, a relay veteran. Some route finding and mis-direction from a passerby in Oxenhope lost them some time. Once back on track they also helped another team who weren’t too keen on some cows in a field.
Lisa Spencer and Lisa Pearson (first relay) on Leg 2 were able to wave to them as they set off in the mass start. The two Lisa’s found they were well matched and pleased to overtake two teams. Sue Fulton and Tamsin Treasure-Jones (first relay) had a good run on Leg 3, working well as a pair and matching the A team ladies, despite Tamsin twisting her ankle in the last mile. With Sue’s encouragement she managed to hobble in just before the cut off. Sue Cariss and Gordon Kaye (our honorary lady : – ) were pleased to get away just before the mass start. Seasoned running legs gave no problems but both had breathing challenges with Sue just recovering from her ‘husky voiced’ bad chest and Gordon’s asthma gave him a tough time after the big pull up onto Ilkley Moor.
Laura Meadowcroft (first relay) and Jenna Killock enjoyed their run from Ilkley over to Bingley, apart from Laura finding one of the still knee deep bogs on the way over to Horncliffe Well, bringing the team home in 8hrs 53ms.
The full results are on the Saltaire Striders website http://johncarr5k.org.uk/site/bradford-millennium-way-relay I was really pleased to get two ladies teams out. A lot of preparation is needed beforehand and a lot has to come together and go right on the day and sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t.
Everyone I have spoken to or heard from enjoyed their recces and the race itself, perhaps running with people they haven’t run with before and on new routes, even those on the more eventful legs. And we have expanded our pool of “experience” for future teams, which is a success in my book.