XCR Round 10 - Tan Relays
A very ordinary wet day for the Tan Relays. Fortunately the “No Club Tents” rule was relaxed and we were able to take cover under the Waverley tent. Not only did we have 20 runners, but it was great to see support from the recently injured Smoothy, Tess, who also made a surprise visit to training, and John Hand. John has just come through a tough period of chemo treatment and now incredibly has the all-clear. He’s not allowed to run for another year, but then could there be another come-back? It was great to have the extra support there from these 3 in the rain.
On the first leg in the rain, our fastest was Tim Stickley with 14:21 who was just ahead of Daniel 14:38. Niamh led the womens 50+ group in, and Peter, Maddie and Michael did well in the rain. It seemed to be clearing up for a little while, but then the rain came back and settled in. Martin moved M50+ up from 6th to 5th, and Sally held the lead in W50+. Matt, Slips, Neil and Em all ran good legs. Then in the 50+ teams, the other womens teams were all stacked with their best runners last. Janice ran a good leg, 20 seconds quicker than last year, but we finished a gallant 4th. In M50+ the House managed to lift Waverly from 5th up to 2nd, our equal best result of the season. Julian, Ernie, Harvs and Petra all ran well in the rain.
Ernie made a rookie mistake by thinking he’d finished at the wrong line. It took him nearly a minute to realise and then cross the 50+ finish line. We might need to book Ernie in for some relay practice after he was also late for his change-over at Sandown. Speaking of late changes, I also managed to miss Nick coming through in Div 3. Fortunately it was only a few seconds before we managed to get it together, and it was nice to not quite be the last team out there this year.
So a great silver medal for M50+ to celebrate. Well done Tim, Martin and House. Sally faced the prospect of lost car keys for a while at the end. But fortunately someone found them and handed them into the AV tent eventually, and she was able to drive again. We headed to the nearby cafe in the Gardens by the lake where we enjoyed a well earned brunch, watching the rain outside.
Well done everyone on a fantastic winter season. We had great numbers in all the events and had plenty of podium finishes in mens and womens 50+. It was also good to welcome new members Neil Hutchins, Linds Sharp, Tim Stickley and Martin Buden, and welcome back Davin Hopper, Shane Fielding (Slips) and Ewen Vowels (Smurf) after a long break.
Cheers James
