Team Running

Ok I'm going to have a go at blogging I wonder if anyone will read it, if so I hope they enjoy it enough to come back!

Well it starts with the Pennine Bridleway Relay.
I had bumped into Stu Stoddart at Keswick X country and he suggested I should run a relay race set in the Pennines somewhere. I hesitated because I 've run very little through the winter, a combination of injury and  workload. I haven't raced since last July and to misquote Carter 'I'm a big man but I'm out of shape.'
Running is essentially a solitary experience. It is your own discipline that gets you out in the coldest wettest winter nights. It is your own desire to perform well that gets you to drive on your own to a race of 500 people and shiver on the start line before flogging your sorry arse around a course to a new PB, that no one knows about or cares about or shares with you. And so with that as the background I found the Pennine Relay an immensely attractive idea. 10 of us travelling together, supporting each other, performing for each other, fantastic.
The 47 mile course is split in to 5 legs run in pairs, a short 5 miler for the speed kings is the shortest and a 12.5 mile leg is the longest. I was placed into the 3rd leg 8.5  miles with the most ascent and a hill described as a 'sting in the tail' and later on in the route description as not runnable. I have to say this information made me nervous I was entering the race poorly prepared with others relying on me. I was glad to be partnered with Stu, although much fitter than me we have a similar style of running, he was unlikely to head off too fast for me or burn me too much on the ascents.  I also knew he would be supportive.
We left Penrith rugby club on the morning of the race at 5:30, an unholy abomination on a Sunday. The drive down was quick and easy and naturally one could only hope the race would be as smooth. Myself and Stu were uptight about getting lost on the route, though Stu was more concerned about this than me as my primary concern was the nagging doubt that I could I possibly keep up with him. I was beginning to realise there was a down side to this team orientated side of running, suddenly I was aware that I could let much more than myself down!
We loitered around the start at Rossendale feeling the nerves of a start but aware that our own races where hours away and eager to avoid burning energy we shifted around uneasily.
Anth and Sam ran our first leg, and did brilliantly bringing us home in 14th, Carl and Kim took over from them. It was cold and I worried that muscles would be ill prepared for the trauma ahead. We piled into our cars and headed to the checkpoint for leg 3. Myself and Stu plodded up the hill that was the opening half mile for our run as a way or warm up and route finding, I was exhausted but chose to keep this pearl to myself. Too soon Carl and Kim came home impressively in 12 and on the shoulders of Borrowdale. Stu's last words to me before the off was something like 'don't even try and keep up with them', I nodded and thought no worries there my friend.
The run itself  found its own pattern Stu was indeed stronger than me and I could just keep up, it was a struggle and Stu could have gone faster but he did a great job of dragging me along. We stayed within sight of Borrowdale and quickly clawed in Bowland and closed in on Clayton. Fate lent us some help here though and both Borrowdale and Clayton missed a turn and we followed the route gaining several minutes on both teams. We handed over to Andy and Jon in 9th, could they keep that position? Leg 4 is for the speed kings and so it proved as we were clawed back and they did an amazing job keeping us in 9th to hand over to Gary and Mark for the last leg with Borrowdale Clayton and Bowland on their shoulder.
For us it was a quick dash to the finish and an eager wait for the green and blue shirts coming home. After 47 miles it came down to a sprint finish and we sneaked in at 12 with Bowland 13, 2 seconds behind.

Lunch and back to the finish to watch the second Eden runners team home and then hurtling back up the country home.
A great result 12 place is a position we would have snapped up before the start and the team performed well and most noticeably performed as a team. In each pairing the guys helped each other, no doubt in each group one of the pairing helped the other more than was helped but none of this mattered or was shared, for we were a team and teams stick together.