Golden Acre Park Relay

Our Leeds Teams were looking forward to this race and the weather on the day meant a good race should have been the order of the day. As it turned out, both James W and James D had mixed runs. Wrighty, leading off the 'A' team had promised to go off 'like a rocket' but then proceeded to sit 2/3rds of the way down the pack as the runners set off. He did make up a few places on the way round the parkland course (which was rather more undulating than I seem to remember!) but blamed a tight back for his inability to make serious headway into the leaders. A time of 19minutes set the team up for a good run nonetheless. James D had the 'honour' of anchoring the 'B' team - not through any desire to grab all the glory, but rather because he didn't want the ignominy of being overtaken by a load of 15 year old girls on the first leg. Instead, this honour went to Old Boy Kirk Arundale who duly obliged in 'letting' the said girls go past him without any sign of resistance on his part. Nevertheless, a steady run gave Gilly the chance to chase a few on her leg. This she did, and when she produced a time a whole minute quicker than Kirk's the shame on his face was evident.

 The final leg saw James D attempt to chase a few 'old timers' round the course, and although one or two succumbed to his blistering tempo, meaningful progress through the field was limited. Even the raucous support provided by his parents and their dogs on the way round failed to inspire him. Despite his team mates urging him to sprint at the end (I thought I was!), he returned a time some 10 seconds slower than last years effort. Still, a good time was had by all and a couple of decent performances were in evidence - Steve S producing a particularly strong 2nd leg for the 'A' team. We shall aim to do better next year, if for no other reason than it will make us feel less guilty about wolfing down Fish&Chips on the way home.

So to conclude; The course was a challenging one with a few short, sharp climbs to get the legs working. The section through the wood was very uneven and it was difficult to keep the momentum. However it was a very scenic course, much more enjoyable than running past buildings and traffic.

The course was fairly dry under foot so it would have been suitable for racing shoes, but we chose our off-road shoes to be safe, if there was a light shower and the course would become very tricky under foot so our suggestion if you are planning on doing this event is take a few different pairs of shoes and choose on the night.