Women’s 6 Stage Road Relay Championships, 1 Apr 2023

Another relay race for my running club and this time my club was hosting it - I didn’t realise it was going to be such a big event until I got there. With 35 women’s teams from all over the North of England, there was some tough competition. There were 6 legs, two of which were 9.5km and the rest were 5km long, I opted for one of the 5km legs as it would fit in more with my duathlon training. The course was a stretch of the coast road in Redcar so it was flat and just an out-and-back. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a particularly nice day to be by the sea, being cold, wet and windy.

I was on the second leg so watched the start and then went for a warm-up on the grass near the course, the first runner was doing 9.5km so I had plenty of time to warm up. I then went to the holding pen and kept an eye out for my teammate, whilst hopping around, trying not to get too cold.

The officials shouted my number and I went to the start line where they held me until my teammate crossed her finish line. I set off too fast as usual but was just keen to get going and other people from my club were cheering me on as they were gathered on the roadside near the start. The first half went fine as I soon got into a steady rhythm and I was pleased to see the turnaround point. I looked at my watch after I’d gone around the cone and was happy to see it was under 10 minutes, just need to keep this up for another mile and a half and I’ll get a PB, I thought. On the way back, I could feel the wind pushing against me and there were no other runners around me to shelter behind, I tried to maintain a steady pace though and could see the crowds starting to get bigger as I was getting nearer to the finish. I heard people from my club shouting for me and I stepped up the pace, crossing the line in 19:46, a massive PB for me and completing my goal of getting a sub 20 minute 5k.

Sarah Hunter