South of England 12 Stage Road Relay 2022
Woodford’s senior men (and one junior!) finished 10th in the Southern 12-stage relay at Milton Keynes’ Stantonbury Campus and Linford Woods on 27th March. We were buoyed by the contribution of an Olympian (Dan Rowden on leg 12), Commonwealth Games 8th placer (Adam Kirk-Smith on leg 5), returning British League 800m veteran Andrew Brown (on leg 4), and new blood coming through from John Stow’s Young Athlete setup (Joel Doye on leg 6). We were never higher than 8th (Leg 1) or lower than 12th (for much of the middle of the race), and ended in 10th after 81.6km and 4 hours and 23 minutes of running, just under a minute per leg behind bronze medallists Bedford (4h12), themselves two minutes behind champions Tonbridge (4h10).
The course had changed, meaning the 8.660km long legs and 4.987km short legs were not comparable with previous championships, in turn meaning rankings within the team and against known rivals were the main benchmarks.
Ed Shepherd (Leg 1, Long, 26:26) had a below-par run after his stellar winter season to come in 8th, still our fastest of the day. Ed reported having a tight chest possibly attributed to a recent bout of cold. Also on Leg 1 was Harold Wyber (32:36), who cheerily stepped up to run a ‘B’ team first leg despite being fatigued from an orienteering event the day before. Harold then stuck around all day to support the team and act as an unofficial reserve runner in case needed.
Back in the ‘A’ team, Ed handed to Tom Phillips (Leg 2, Short, 15:50) who duly delivered our fastest short leg of the day, ceding only one place to 9th. Tom was pleased with his run despite a niggly hip injury that has limited his running the last fortnight. He was followed by James Stockings (3, L, 27:16) who enjoyed a good but ultimately unsuccessful battle with his Hercules Wimbledon stablemate, and Andrew Brown (4, S, 16:51) who was gamely fitting the race in en route to South America,and after whom we placed 12th. Andrew enjoyed the chance to run at that pace as a lot of his recent tempo work has been slower as part of the training for the group he coaches.
Adam Kirk-Smith (5, L, 26:52) had made the trip from Northern Ireland specially, and remained in 12th but with the 8th fastest leg on that stage. This was despite obscured signage leading him to set out for a third lap, before being called back, which disrupted his rhythm. He teed up Joel Doye (6, S, 16:03) on his debut for the senior squad, to take two places and move us back into 10th. As our joint second-fastest short leg, and run a faster pace than his track 3000m PB from 2021, despite the hilly course, this was both an excellent run in its own right, and an extremely promising improvement.
The next two long legs had been branded ‘the battle to avoid the long leg wooden spoon’ and Tom Beedell (7, L, 28:16) set Angus Holford an ambitious but achievable target. Angus (9, L, 28:27) latched onto a City of Norwich runner who overtook him early, but was just behind Tom’s schedule all the way round and accepted said wooden spoon still reflecting on a decent run. He ceded just one place which Dan Steel (8, S, 17:24) held on to. Dan was a late call up to the A team but ran quicker than his recent park runs. Simon Beedell (10, S, 16:24) held on to 12th place with his brother remarking on his closing kilometre, that he’d never seen Simon shift so quick. Josh Entwistle took over and ran the highest-ranked individual stage in the team (6th fastest on Leg 11, L, 27:21). Josh showed no fatigue from his 3 half marathons in 5 weeks, instead reaping the benefit of the training that took him to sub-70 minutes in all of them. Josh took two places to move us into 10th. This meant Dan Rowden (12, S, 16:03) started the final leg over 2 minutes behind 9th placed Winchester and 80 seconds ahead of 11th placed Kent. Dan took 28 seconds out of Winchester and defended over a minute of the lead over Kent, but the 800m specialist was unfortunately denied the chance for a grandstand sprint finish. The Olympian enjoyed seeing the team so much that in the aftermath he indicated a few cross country appearances could be made next year.
Our 10th place made us 3rd Met League club (behind silver medallists Highgate and 8th placed Victoria Park). The squad can take satisfaction from the scalps of our nemeses from 2012 (bronze medallists to our 4th) Kent AC, who finished 11th after an impressively back-loaded performance, gaining or holding ground on every single leg after coming in 23rd on Leg 1; and Belgrave (13th after a somewhat more consistent race).
Although we comfortably qualified, several of the team from the Southern were unavailable for the National 12-stage, so team managers made the decision not to enter. This has made no difference to the inevitable destination of the Ken Bray Trophy, won for the second consecutive season by Tom Beedell. After spending the early part of the season regaining fitness after injury, this is just reward for Beedell’s consistency and commitment.