SEAA 6 Stage Road Relay: Women 7th
A Team
The women’s competition is a six stage affair with equal legs of just over 5k. With a sizeable squad, by recent standards, of 11 women having travelled to a squally Milton Keynes, mercifully the loss of 2 A team athletes on race morning inflicted only minimal damage.
Leading the women out was Rachel Lund. The ace rower, tanned from a week’s skiing, ran strongly for 19:45 making our fourth fastest leg of the day and placing the team 21st. 
She handed over to welcome racing returnee Sidnie Sales (left) who, after a whole season out, is breaking herself back into competition and getting in some speed practice ahead of her forthcoming marathon. Having been promoted to the A team at the last minute, a very respectable time of 20:17 should have pleased the newly qualified PE teacher and boosted her confidence for the big one next month. Gaining two places, Sales took us to 19th. Emily Moss (below, right) took the third leg, running a very strong 5k for 19:01 and our second fastest of the day. Running 30 seconds faster than last year, the British Universities 1500 silver medallist surprised herself with her pace in such windy conditions. She gained us four places taking us to 15th.
Emily must have channelled some of her energy into fourth-legger Gemma Coe in the handover as her excellent run produced our fastest performance of Sunday for 18:40 and, most importantly, six places to ninth. It was down to our two most talented Vets to get Woodford into a good place and they didn’t disappoint. The hastily A-promoted V45 Bernie Pritchett, fresh back from Poland and yet another track title, gained two in her 19:52 run for seventh; and anchor-woman V35 Kat Gundersen, with a run that, to her, felt ‘sluggish’, secured us for a very respectable seventh place finish, equalising with the men and with last year’s performance. Significantly, we were ahead of Met League rivals Highgate and Heathside – underlining the strength of our talent when we can muster it. Who knows what we might have achieved with our original A line up.
B Team
For the first time since this race last year we closed a B team on Sunday. It was a close run thing, but the grit and tenacity of the Woodettes shone through. V45 Alex Wardle, more used, this season, to being behind the camera than in front of it, opened for the Bs. Slowly coming back to form with long forest runs after a mojo-sapping winter, Alex ran a steady 22:46. In perfect symmetry with her A team sister, Georgie-Lou Sales – also coming back to form after time out - ran well for 21:26 and gained us one place for 36th. Third in this ‘returner’s’ string was new mum Maxine “Supermax” Voutilainen in her first race outing since giving birth in the week of the Claybury Met League earlier this season! Max ran strongly for 23:31 before handing over to V45 Jenny Thomas.
Not expecting to do much but finish (and earn valuable Brenda Bray points) having run the Orion 15 only the previous day, Jenny had her second shoelace fracas in as many days as her soaking and insufficiently secured Nikes came loose, costing a minute; but nonetheless managing a very stiff 24:14 and (amazingly) a gain of two places to 35. Brenda Bray contender V50 Karen Balcombe ran the fifth leg a minute quicker than Jenny and gained a place taking the team to 34th. Closing for the Bs on our sixth leg, was Jane Shepherd with a very creditable 25:07 considering she left home with no intention of running. The Bs ended in 35thplace of 37 teams closing.
Had the Woodettes ended the day any more bouyantly they’d have been blown away like much else (except Rob Wilbrahim’s sturdy tent) on the MKAC in-field. But after a very mixed season there was real hope on Sunday that, with smarter race targeting and better engagement, we can be a more sustainable force.