The Tale of Helen and Her Homies

As the ninth of twelve teams to depart Stony Stratford on Sunday morning, Andy Inchley was taking on the long first leg following the Great Ouse river and then the Grand Union canal on route to Woolstone. Very much on home turf and knowing that there were a number of slower runners not too far in front, Andy ran pretty well to complete the 10.3 miles in 62:41, having overtaken five teams. He then handed over to late substitute Steve Orlando, who had run the route the day before after Charlie's late withdrawl.

With the help of other runners Steve managed to complete 98% of the course without too much difficulty, until he had just 100 yards to go. At this point the runner behind who's directions he had been following got it wrong and they both ended up doing an extra 400m. The problem was that Nick Clay (Leg 3) had gone down the track to look for Steve who ended up coming in from the wrong direction, so had no-one to hand over too. After a few minutes of confusion and a minor loss of position Nick headed off on the tough third leg.

Nick ran pretty well over the course that he has done twice before and gained a few places to move his team up to fourth position in the race before handing over to Helen Crossland. This was Helen's first ever team event for LBAC and she made the 10K cross-country trip from Bottledump roundabout to Stony Stratford without incident to bring the team home in 4:19:15.

The Tale of Julia and Her Gents

With Simon leading off this team five minutes ahead of Andy, his challenge was to see how many of the runners in front he could catch before handing over to John Adam. Simon completed the route in 61:58 to set a new course record for the leg and give someone a target for next year. He also over took five people and got very close to a sixth. John Adam then headed off on the 5.6 miles from The Barge to Bow Brickhill and although he was overtaken by a couple of people the experience of remembering the route paid dividends as he took advantage of Steve's detour to hand over to Pete Mackrell after 53:25 in second place.

With the confusion over people going wrong, Pete didn't realise he was so well up in the field and was just planning on getting to Julia as quickly as possible. Leg three is by far the trickiest leg of the four as it is cross-country, hilly, it has dozens of stiles and gates and many nettles to battle through as well as being somewhat tricky to navigate. Having recce'd it twice though Pete had no problem with any of this and overtook the leading team between Bletchley and Newton Longville to hand over to Julia with a lead!

Now, when the spectators arrived at the final change we discovered that due to a car breakdown Julia had not done the challenging final leg before! None of the legs are simple enough to just wing it unfortunately and so it proved. On route to Inchley Senior's house for a shower Julia was spotted by the support team some distance off the route on V1! A quick 400m lift back to the course and she was pointed back on route behind an MK runner with the instructions "Just keep going that way" and a clear point! As teams started to arrive back to the Market Square in Stony a story came through of more directions being given by other spectators just two miles away. Eventually, much to everyone's relief Julia came down the road witha big smile and completed the course for her team to give them a total time of 4:19:47 and remarkably only 30 seconds different from Helen's team.

The Tale of Liz and Her Lads

Joe Hurley was the last of the four leg one runners for Leighton to set off, as the tenth of the teams overall. Having been plagued by injury Joe was just hoping to get around in a solid time and did exactly that as he finished in 71:33 in the same position having gained one place and lost one to the flying Steve Herring. For the rest of the day, Joe's knee gradually stiffened up and by the end was walking like Herr Flick, but had done well for the team.

Liz's team had the fastest LBAC runner on leg two, with Chris Williams taking on the baton from Joe and charging around the route in 42:40. Whilst this run only gained two places for his team, the three teams making route errors meant they were now all much closer and gave Chris Norman a fighting chance with a number of targets.

Chris had experienced the joys of leg three last year, although the temperature was about 10-12 degrees lower in 2011 than the scorching day last year. With five more teams in the race this year Chris was hunting them down. He managed to complete the 9.6 miles in 70:13 and overtook four teams in the process to hand over in fourth place, just a little way behind Nick Clay with Liz favourite to overtake Helen.

Liz headed off towards Stony Stratford with Friday's recce still fresh in her mind and soon picked off Helen, but had some of the faster MK runners bearing down on her too. With just half a mile to go, Liz's efforts took their toll on her as she pulled a muscle in her thigh, but she managed to keep running (with a limp) and brought her team home as the first of the LBAC mixed teams in a total of 4:01:59, just proving that consistency and knowing the route makes a big difference!

The Tale of the Leighton Ladies

Our all female team was the only one in the competition on the day and as it turned out were the first to start, based on the total predicted time. Having run the route and then cycled it again in the last week, leg one runner Kate Owens was confident over the distance and despite having people chasing her, completed the 10.2 miles in under 8mpm pace retaining the race lead and five minutes inside her predicted time.

She handed on to Fiona at the pub, who's challenge was to keep the girls out front and beat the 54 minutes predicted. Fi comfortably managed both these challenges as she completed leg 2 in 50.25 with a seven minute lead for Amy. When you are at the front in a race such as this, the problem is that you have very little idea how far in front you are and so feel somewhat like a hare being hunted.

Amy set off along the road very fast, but as soon as she reached the short hill in the village realised it may have been a touch too quick. After she finished she claimed to have been "hanging on" from Little Brickhill at 3 miles! However, she completed the course in 79:18 and was the fastest of the four ladies who did the leg. The only person to see her was Pete Mackrell who caught her after six miles, but Amy knew she had an ace up her sleeve in the figure of Jane Sauer.

Jane took over girls baton in second place with only the disorientated Julia in front! There were a couple of quick MK runners starting behind, but they were a fair way behind as it turned out, although Jane didn't know that. Jane powered off up the hill back to Stony, and although she didn't see Julia (due to her excursion from the course) she moved through into the lead and completed the leg in 47:01 with a stunning sprint finish to give a total time of 4:16:33.

All in All

The event is all about a fun social relay with some prizes being awarded for the fastest team and the fastest age related team. None of the LBAC teams won these awards, but they were all very well received and thanked by the organisers in the pub at the end although Liz and her lads were only 2 minutes away from second in the overall fastest team. Many thanks to everyone who took the time to come along and get involved in the day and hopefully everyone will manage to get out and recce their legs of Greensand!