Green Wheel Relay

Seven members of Grantham Running Club headed down to Peterborough on Sunday 16^th June for

the Green Wheel Relay. The race has 49 miles of bike paths, footpaths and quiet lanes to negotiate in legs of varying distances. It is a highly regarded and keenly contested event for clubs in and around the Peterborough area, with entries limited to 50 teams. It was the first time GRC has taken part in this, or indeed any other, team relay event, although some current members of the club, none of whom took part on Sunday, competed in the event some years ago with Grantham Athletics Club.

With each team’s departure time based on estimated running times for each leg (the quickest going last at 11:15am) Matthew Kingston-Lee set off from the Embankment Stadium at 10:15am with two other teams. He instantly pulled well clear of the two other runners and had a lonely 8.3 mile run to Eye. Matthew was pleased with his time of 49:10, which included around 40 seconds lost to a wrong turn taken in a race where you are expected to self navigate. The results show that he set the fourth fastest leg time, with only the trio of race and category winning Helpston Harriers teams clocking faster times.

Matthew handed over to Sam Jepson-Rivers who was delighted with his performance over the 4.2 mile second leg from Eye to Newborough clocking 27:50 - the sixth fastest time of the day.  Meanwhile Matthew was swiftly driven back to the race start by Chris Limmer, so that Matthew could ride the eight or so miles to the start of leg 4, which Chris was running and he was cycling in support, as per the race rules.

Sam handed over to Peter Bonner who had the misfortune of running the 10km long third leg from Newborough to Northborough during a biblical downpour, which flooded the roads and made the off-road section hard going. A great run from Peter saw him pass several teams in clocking the fifth best time of 40:26. Just ahead of Peter a thoroughly soaked Matthew arrived on his bike, able to find Sam, who had driven ahead to pick up Peter at the end of his leg, but unable to find Chris.

It was here the dramas for Grantham Running Club began. Chris had managed to inform the team that he had got lost en route and it was increasingly apparent he wasn't going to make it to the leg start in time. There was a brief delay after Peter arrived at the end of the third leg as an emergency contingency plan was hatched. A barely recovered Peter was soon off running again, understandably at a much reduced pace. Matthew followed him on his bike as Sam made preparations to take over from Peter later on in the leg.

A few miles in, Sam pulled up in his car and took over running the fourth leg from Peter, fortunately just in time before the road became an inaccessible cycle path. Sam put in a heroic effort to run the last six miles of an 8.4 mile leg to Ferry Meadows Country Park in increasingly warm, humid conditions, setting a time of 1:07:22.

It was Peter, who had successfully arrived by car to the finish of leg four, who informed Sam he had only had 150 meters left before handing over to Ian Williams’ leg five’s 8.6 mile run to Norman Cross. The second leg that required mandatory bike support, wife Claire Williams ensured safe passage for Ian over what was arguably the hardest leg of the course, featuring the only significant climb of the relay and a headwind for much of the stage. Ian felt he didn’t have the best of runs, yet his 53:31 was an impressive third fastest time of the day.

Ian handed over to Daniel Ancliffe who had a great leg six over the 7.6 miles from Norman Cross to Stanground, clocking the sixth best time of the day with 48:33. It was Joaquim Jeronimo who had the privilege of bringing the team back home to the finish at the Embankment Stadium. The 5.7 mile final leg was made tougher by a stiff headwind in the final stages, but ‘Flash’ capped a great race for the team by setting the fifth fastest time of 37:48.

The team finished in 5:24:40, which saw them placed third in the Men’s Senior category and sixth overall when combined with the five other categories. Considering it was GRC’s first experience of a team relay it can be looked upon as a very fine result for the club, with lots of lessons learned and experienced gained to hopefully improve their position in future editions of the race.