Trawden AC joins the Big Boys at the National XC Relays

Wow, what a year it’s been for Trawden AC with cross country running! The club decided this year to enter the Mid Lancs XC league for the first time, as well as the Red Rose league, to see how members would adapt to running cross country. After the great success of the first two XC races at Leigh and Chorley, we saw an opportunity to take the club forward a big step and enter the National XC relays at Mansfield.

For those who are new to running, these relays are a chance for all the top clubs around the UK to show one another who has the best elite runners and to be honest they take it very, very seriously. We are talking about British XC champion Andy Veron (27 mins for 10K) Andi Jones of Stockport (2.12 marathon), local lad Tom Cornthwaite (Hendon Brook record holder) plus Chris Singleton, Dave Lord, Dave Potter and Graham Rose from that little old club called Trawden.

To be honest when I first approached the club about entering these relays, they were really excited about our little club doing them but also a little cautious about the travelling distance and whether or not we could actually compete against the standard of runners entering the relays. We decided to go for it and entered a men’s team to go down and make our mark.

All the travel arrangements were made and we were ready for our big day out. In the week before the relays I was avoiding answering my phone in case it was someone with an injury and this would mean me having to run (I’m only 60% fit at the moment). No phone calls but lots of messages saying how everyone was looking forward to it.

On the day of the relays things didn't start too well for me, I was at the local hospital at 8am with my wife who had twisted her knee and had her leg put in a brace with crutches. I now have a big decision to make, do I stay with my injured wife who couldn't do anything for herself due and tend to her every need all day long to ensure she is okay like a loving husband, or do I think of the team and abandon my wife in her hour of need?

We set off on our travels (making sure Chris Singleton had remembered his spikes this week) and the British weather didn't let us down with a downpour all the way to Mansfield. On arriving at Berry Park we realised how big they relays were with so many burger stalls about (I thought athlete’s didn't eat junk food?).

On entering the team in the race and telling the marshals which club we were, the first highlight of the day was when he said they had been waiting for us to arrive as they had never heard of Trawden and wanted to know where we came from!

We had an hour before our race so the lads went for a warm up while I walked around the area for the club runners to admire some of the outstanding club gazebos. Yes that’s right, I wasn't looking for the top athletes just the top gazebo. I might be sitting down with the committee at a later date to show them my findings!

Highlight of the day number two was talking to the Salford lads (Tom Cornthwaite et al) and they were singing our praises saying it’s great to see a club like ours at a national event. This was the moment I thought to myself we are no longer such a little club but a club going forward and other clubs are aware of our success.

Down to the race and our marathon man Dave Lord had decided to run the first leg with the fast lads. As Dave said “I was looking around at the start line thinking a lot of these runners are the same age as my youngest and some could be my grandchildren!” Dave set off at a steady pace and coming up to the finish line he looked dead beat, then he realized he had another lap to go (we forgot to tell him it was a two lap course). On leg 2 we had our star man Chris Singleton who has been on top form in recent weeks and he didn't let us down by having a super leg and passed an amazing 36 runners on the way round!

Graham Rose was on leg three for us and this was his first big relay event. The way the changeover works is that a marshal will shout out the number of the runner coming in so the runner on the next leg gets ready to set off. As Chris finished his leg, Graham didn’t hear the marshal shout out his number or see Chris finish. As Chris was getting his breath back he noticed Graham still waiting to set off, Chris shouted to Graham to set off (or words to that effect) in a nice manner! (We only lost about 15 seconds and as we weren’t in the gold medal position we had a good laugh about it.)

Graham has been running very well over the last few weeks at XC (he is keeping me out of the team) and he did himself justice with a good solid run. Our hero Dave Potter set off for our last leg and, to say Dave has been struggling with a knee injury, he ran a good leg to bring the team home in 107th place.

I would like to thank the lads for their efforts on the day, yes it was a long way to travel for a 5K XC race, but I’m sure the memories will last a lifetime. Also a big “thank you” to the club for their support with this event. Next year we are aiming to take men’s and ladies team down, any volunteers?
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