Autumn Relays 1994

The eighth running of the Top House Autumn Relays was held on Wednesday the 9th of November, as usual at the Kitty Brewster Trading Estate. Once again the event was well supported with thirty-nine runners (and a dozen or so spectators) turning out on a cold and wet night, with a strongish breeze in the runner's faces on the second half of the course. The poor conditions didn't have much effect on a certain Andy Brown, who managed to reduce last year's course record by four seconds to eleven minutes forty two seconds, a brilliant effort. In setting the record he turned a 1 minute 26 second deficit at the end of the second leg, into a 17 second advantage at the finish, over a distance of only two and a bit miles.

The team prize went to Team A, comprising Cath Coultate, Rob Marshall, and Andy Brown, congratulations to you all, Cath and Andy have both previously placed in this event but Ron thinks this is Rob's first time. It was nice to see a few new faces taking part, I hope they haven't been put off by busting their lungs on this course. Not so nice to see was the sight of Dave Kitching on crutches, after returning to racing in the last fortnight following a long layoff due to injury, Dave fell over a bollard while out on a bike ride and badly bruised his hip. I bet he said more than "bollards" when it happened......

Ron has asked me to thank, on his behalf, The Top House for their support and sponsorship, also everybody who took part in the event (including the two ladies), and particularly those people that helped him with organization and timekeeping, etc. namely : Steve Marshall, George Marshall and me for the timekeeping and results; Jimmy Pawson, Ken Gibson, Bob Soulsby and Christine Willshire for pointing runners in the right direction at the right time (something that hasn't always happened on this course! ) Also thanks to Jimmy Lewis and Ian Tinmouth for stepping in on the night to take the places of Robin Fentum and Bill Leadbitter, both of whom withdrew for one reason or another.

Looking at the results, there is less than 3 minutes between the first and last teams, which works out as less than a 7% variation across the board, well done Ron, and thanks once again for all your efforts, from all participants for another well organized event - even from the ones who looked like they were going to throw up after they had finished their individual legs.

Finally a mention for Steve Gillespie, the only person to have done all eight of these events since they were first run, and who gave his usual 110% effort resulting in the third fastest time on the night and third place for his team, pipping Neil Crooks by the smallest of margins at the line. Well done "Marra".