Middle Pack

Another race where I have come away with some booze! A few last minute emails during the week and we had a team of three for the BOFRA Badgerstone Relays. A short route up Ilkley Moor to the Badgerstone then a great steep grassy descent down to the bottom of the Moor.

After turning up a bit early and finding no-one at the start we popped off for some coffee and came back in time to see the junior race and register as the first team. A quick recce of some of the route and back down to the start in time for our race. Unfortunatly the turn out for the relays was poor due to the inter county champs and Jura being on the same weekend and there were only 4 teams. A bit of rounding up and a few ad-hoc teams and the turn out was up to 8 teams of 3.

I got the 1st leg and we were soon off up the hill. I tucked in behind a guy from Settle but he was soon pulling away from me up the hill. In my mind I was thinking he will tire soon. I will get him on the flat section across the moor. As soon as we got to the flat section I realise that he wasn’t going to tire so the main aim was to try and keep the gap to a minimum and ensure that the rest of the team can keep 2nd position. A fast descent and a better route choice meant I caught up with him a bit but he still had a healthy lead on the change over. I had also got us a good lead over third by around a minute on a 20 minute course.

Our second runner was soon off up the hill and I went off to take a few snaps. He ran well and we were still comfortably in 2nd but the top team had a healthy lead. Our 3rd runner arguably our fastest was soon off but had a huge gap to close and an awkward postion to run in. Too far away to catch up with 1st but so far ahead of 3rd that he didn’t have to push hard to keep position. He still had a good run and we came home 2nd team out of 8.

We won booze as the prize and all in all a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. A recommended relay and I will try to get a few more club teams to come down next year for the fun.