Sunday 25th November 2018
9:00am
On Sunday, 25th November, John, me, Jacqui and Keith took part in the annual Hereward Relay. It had been raining prior to the race day. Even the weather forecast said it’d be raining most of Sunday. I was even planning to wear my waterproof running jacket. It turned out we were so blessed with the sunny weather throughout our race and as soon as we had taken the team photo after our relay, the sky opened up and it started raining. It was such a miracle that we had such a narrow escape.
Although the route of my leg (stage 2 from Whittlesey to March) was very muddy, it was not the worst. I experience in the past my trainer was sucked by the mud and detached from my feet. I basically had to pick up my trainer from the mud and put it back on and to run the rest of 5 / 6 miles with the mud inside my trainer.
This year, there are a total 118 teams and 5 Ultra Runners (i.e.: they run the entire 4 legs – each of them !!). 117 teams and all 5 Ultra runners have completed the event. Here is the break down of our team: “The Snail”:
John finished his first leg from Peterborough to Whittlesey (6.9 miles) in 1:09’59” beating 5 people to reach 112th position (https://youtu.be/HsucYhlGHkA)
I finished my 2nd leg from Whittlesey to March (10.3 miles) in 1:48’19” slightly moving up to 109th position (https://youtu.be/_jPIvhrreC4)
Jacqui finished her 3rd leg from March to Welney (11.8 miles) in 1:39’12” closing the gap and moving up 18 places to 91st position (https://youtu.be/-6-AAzp3I20)
Keith finished his 4th leg from Welney to Ely (10.9 miles) in 1:32’43” moving up further 7 places to 84th position (https://youtu.be/eb4V4BEaUDA)
Thanks for the effort from Jacqui and Keith to narrow the gap to bring our team to the overall 103th position in 6:10’14” beating 14 other teams. Not too bad for “the snails”.
For full results, please visit:
http://www.marchac.co.uk/herewardresults.shtml
The Hereward Relay marked its 20th anniversary this year. I heard that some of the runners have been taking part since the first event in 1998 without missing a year. I have been doing this event since 2006 and have seen the organisation of this event improving year after year. I still remember those years when we started from the Peterborough Cathedral and finished at the Ely Cathedral. Neither location has the toilet, changing, refreshment or parking facilities. In a freezing cold morning, hundreds of runners took MacDonald’s near the start as a shelter. There was a time MacDonald’s toilets ran out of toilet paper !!. Then when we finished outside the Ely Cathedral, we had to walk about 8 minutes to the nearest Costa Coffee to get hot drinks and use the toilet.
Therefore, it was a massive improvement when they moved the start to the Peterborough Athletic Centre and the finish to the Ely Football Club. Both sites provide the adequate welfare facilities to the runners. In addition, it is such a great photo / video opportunity to see the first leg runners running around the track before embarking to the trail and the final leg runners running around the track before crossing the finish line. The atmosphere is fantastic at the finish. Watching Keith pushing so hard around the track before crossing the finish line is just so inspirational and motivational.
Another big improvement is the signage. I had mishaps for a few times in the past after missing the signage. This was due to the lack of signage plus the position of the signage. Now, they put more signage up as well as spraying the big yellow arrows on the floor wherever the route hits an open road. When I got confused with my orientation and it was those arrows on the floor which had given me a huge sigh of relief.
A big thank you to the organisers for their continuous improvement. I can see there is so much planning ahead of this event and so much work during and after the event. Their effort has not gone unnoticed.
