The main meeting night for the Stragglers used to be a major affair and although numbers have fallen in recent years it is still a primary focus for the club. usually we go through a warm up routine followed by various group runs at different distances and pace. But tonight was different with a special focus. One of our members, Nigel Rothwell, came up with the idea of a short relay race for the club to run one evening in the summer. The format was a 1.6 mile loop with teams of 4. All runners entered as individuals and gave a recent 5k time. Teams were then put together so that theoretically all would be of a similar time overall, with a mix of faster and slower runners in each team. The race was adopted by the club and named “The Rothwell Relays. Sadly after a few years of the event running, Nigel became ill with pancreatic cancer and died three years ago. The relay however continues and marks his memory. donations are made to the Pancreatic Cancer charity.
With my marathon training in mind, 1.6 miles was not enough for my Thursday effort, so I cycled down early and ran a couple of laps as a warm up. These were at a faster pace than I would have done on my own as I ended up with quicker runners, but that was probably a good thing from a training perspective. The first run was 1.55 miles at 8.47 pace. The second 1.56 at 9.11 pace. I didn’t get a time on the race leg I ran but it was considerably quicker. So in total about 4.7 miles over the evening, which was pretty much on plan and keeps me slightly ahead of schedule. Was a fun evening too and well supported so good all round.
This Running Life 