VAANEE Road Relays – Bedewell Park Hebburn 6-6-2012

It was congratulations all round as the old fogies from Tyne Bridge won medals galore in this year’s event.

Dave Moir sends in this report.

All the races set off together at 7:15 on a rather warm close evening, with the ladies running one of the 1.7ish kilometre laps and the men running 2. TBH had teams in every category of the Mens race V35-44, V45-54 & V55-64 and a V35 team in the ladies race.

I set off on leg 1 with Keith (I’m didn’t put an entry in for Blaydon) Smith who put on a massive initial burst to lead the field round the first leg. We had Lucy Matheson on leg 1 for the ladies and Dave Anderson for the V55 mens team who both put in good solid performances to leave their team mates in good positions for the next leg.

Keith handed over to David Appleby and Apples had one of the least enviable of jobs of the evening, that being to minimise the damage that Sunderland’s V45 team member Brian Rushworth could do to us. Brian went past Apples just before the second lap and he took a bit more ground out of him on the second lap, I handed over to Sean Kelly who despite having run Edinburgh Marathon a week and a half ago, put in a fantastic second leg leaving DD with a reasonable position to work with. Dave Anderson handed over to Big Ron and Lucy to Jane Lowes.

The ladies race finished much earlier as they ran one lap each, and it was great to see Kerry Reed bring the girls home in first position. Brilliant effort all round from the ladies who also provided my favourite quote of the night of “but I never win anything”. Let’s hope TBH has reversed that situation, and this Gold medal will be the first of many.

On the final leg Apples, after keeping in contact with the Sunderland team, handed over to Dave Embleton who gave it everything to retain the overall 2nd position for the V45 team. DD also gave it all he had pulling our V35-45 team into 3rd overall, then Graham King brought the V55 team home having a bit of a battle with a Low Fell lad in the home straight.

The final results (unconfirmed at this point in time) is as follows :-

Ladies V35-44 – first overall to take the gold medals

‘Young’ Gadgies V35-44 – 3rd overall – first in the age category to take the gold medals.

‘Getting On a Bit’ Gadgies V45-54 – 2nd overall – second in the age category to take the silver medals.

Owld Gadgies V55-64 – third in the age category to take the bronze medals.

As with all these events, TBH runners had terrific support from fellow club members, so many thanks to Denise, Mickey Duff and Marc Fenwick.

And thanks also, to all the officials and volunteers who helped put on a great event.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.tynebridgeharriers.com/2012/06/06/north-east-masters-road-relays-2012/

11 comments

Skip to comment form

  1. Many thanks to DM for his rapid race report. So eager was he to return home and write it up, he missed the photo opportunity after the presentation.
    On a personal note, many thanks to my team-mates, Danger Mouse and Mister Kelly, for their efforts tonight. I know they both gave 100%. And thanks to everyone else for making it such a great evening.

    • Sean Kelly on 6th June 2012 at 23:21
    • Reply

    It was a fantastic night. The clouds and rain had disappeared, by kick off it was a lovely sunny evening. A great venue, quiet tarmac roads and very well marshalled. I was worried about embarrassing myself with my marathon legs. No need. The support and craic was second to none. The lasses were awesome and Keith Smith set fire to the roads with his pace. I was inspired by our lasses and lads. Well done to our supporters too, you were brilliant.

    • John Tollitt on 6th June 2012 at 23:36
    • Reply

    Well done everybody. Sounds like everybody did themselves proud.

    • Big Ron on 7th June 2012 at 07:55
    • Reply

    Thanks for the report, Dave. A great night and for everyone who ran to come back with a medal was fantastic. A great event, just a pity it wasn’t well supported by other clubs in the region. It was good to hear others talk about how well TBH are represented at events across the region. Another feather in our cap! Downside is I think my legs are knacjkred for Staurday………………. I feel as though I have divers boots on this morning.

    • Brother Louis on 7th June 2012 at 08:12
    • Reply

    Well done all, a very impressive haul, that has got to be the most successful race in the club’s history!

      • Big Ron on 7th June 2012 at 12:27
      • Reply

      Aye, us golden oldies are putting you young ones to shame!

        • Brother Louis on 7th June 2012 at 13:28
        • Reply

        Very true! I’m now looking forward to my 35th birthday to join the squad ;-) two years and counting!

    • Denise on 7th June 2012 at 09:59
    • Reply

    A fantastic night for TBH. Congratulations to all runners and thanks for the report Dave. Bring on the next relays!

  2. well done lads n lasses, something to hang on the mantelpiece, beats pictures of the kids or for the ‘old gadgies’ grand kids ….

    • Apples on 7th June 2012 at 18:24
    • Reply

    This is a great little event and a just a shame a few more clubs didn’t get teams out on the night, well organised and marshalled on a nice course.
    Great to see the TBH ladies picking up their first Championship medals.
    Cheers to Dave Embleton for giving me the honour of being chased down by Brian Rushworth, he’s never picking the teams again!
    One last thing, why is Embleton the only one who couldn’t manage a decent pose for the photo?

    1. It’s because he hasn’t enrolled at the Daniel Birchall School of Posing. Thoroughly recommended to members not sure of how to pull off the perfect pose.

Leave a Reply to Big Ron Cancel reply

Your e-mail address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.