| Sunday 26th November 2017 | ||
| 40 miles from Peterborough -> Whittlesey -> March -> Welney -> Ely |
On Sunday 26th November, John, Keith, Jacqui and I took part in the annual Hereward Relay race with John running the 1st leg (6.9 miles) from Peterborough to Whittlesey. I ran the 2nd leg (10.5 miles) from Whittlesey to March. Jacqui ran the 3rd leg (11.5 miles) from March to Welney and Keith ran the 4th leg (10.9 miles) from Welney to Ely. The 40 miles of Hereward Way crosses over bridleways, fields, bridges and tracks in almost sub-zero temperature
. This is exactly how cross-country running should be – in winter !!!
This year marked the 20th Anniversary of the event. This event goes from strength to strength from 14 teams taking part in 1997 to now 120 teams (120 teams are the maximum due to logistics and marshals limitation).
We travelled up the night before to Peterborough and stayed at the hotel. The weather forecast said it’d be a mega cold morning and it was but thankfully no snow or rain. The start at the Peterborough Athletic Centre is only a short drive from our hotel. At 9am sharp, all the 1st leg runners started from the running track. They had to run a lap on the track before heading to the wild.
After sending John off, I drove to Whittlesey to receive his baton (ie: a pat on his hand) and to start my leg. John arrived in 1 hour 7 minutes. He was very please as he had shaved 6 minutes off from last year. John then drove to Peterborough Train Station to pick Jacqui up to drive to March for Jacqui to run her 3rd leg.
I have not been in good form this year due to a nasty chest infection in September and I lost several weeks of training in order to fight off the bugs. This was followed by a grumpy leg (the old injury of posterior cruciate ligament on my left leg has been playing up) plus I am SO not a cold winter person. So, I kind of ran my entire leg in a bit of a blur and I really didn’t take much in. The only thing I did notice was that I felt like no matter how much I pushed, I still didn’t get to the finish. To add salt to the wound, at about 8 miles, I accidentally treaded my right foot to a very deep muddy puddle. Although I didn’t lose my trainer, I ran the rest of 2 and half miles with a very heavy and muddy right foot. When I finally arrived at my finish, John and Jacqui had already been there for over half an hour. Poor Jacqui was shivering while waiting for me. My time was poor. I only managed to finish my leg of 10.5 miles in 1 hour 50 minutes which was 6 minutes slower than last year.
John and I then bought 2 tickets to the leisure centre to take shower and get change. Thank God I had a pair of spare shoes. I could never put back on my muddy trainer again after getting cleaned up. We then drove to Welney and Keith was already there. It was extremely cold and we had to take the village hall as shelter. By 1:30pm, all final leg runners had to make a move. There was no Jacqui yet. It meant that Keith left without seeing Jacqui. But about 20 seconds after Keith’s departure, Jacqui arrived. It was a great shame Jacqui and Keith only missed each other by only 20 seconds. Jacqui is a strong runner. She did amazingly well. She finished her leg of 1 1.5 miles in 1 hour 31 minutes. Bravo Jacqui. She had made up our team time tremendously.
After some lunch inside the village hall, we then drove to Ely Football Club. We missed Michelle as she left after parking Keith’s car in Ely because she had to catch the 5pm flight to the US for work. When we were waiting for Keith’s arrival, I got a call from Michelle. She said Keith is in good form this year and he was aiming for sub 1 and a half hours. As soon as I got off the phone, we all rushed out from the club house to the track. Michelle was right. After only a short while we saw Keith coming. He had to run around half of the running track before crossing the finish line. We were cheering and chanting to Keith. Keith was so pleased to have achieved his target of 1 hours 28 minutes for 10.9 miles.
I was disappointed with my performance this year but I was so pleased that John, Jacqui and Keith had all improved their time from last year. It was indeed a great end to a great event.
When I checked the results online, our team came 99th out of 111 teams (9 teams didn’t qualify either didn’t show up at all or didn’t finish in a full team). It was better than expected. Great team effort. The credit goes to John, Jacqui and Keith. I must do more training and a better time next year.
For full results, please visit:
http://www.marchac.co.uk/Hereward/2017TeamRelayResult.pdf
For video footage, please click:
This was John’s 13th and my 10th (could have been my 11th had I not injured my posterior cruciate ligament in 2014 and had to withdraw my leg). It is a tough event but we really enjoyed it. The “spirit” of the Hereward Relay is low-key, friendly and cooperative. Runners support each other and help in navigating the route. There were not many marshals but when I saw one, they were always very friendly and giving me encouraging words.