The National 12 Stage Road Relay, which is the final major team Championship of a long Road & X-country season took place on Saturday 8th April at Sutton Park, on a warm spring day, the Senior Mens team having qualified via the Northern Championships 2 weeks earlier.
The race is made up of 6 long legs of 5.6mile and 6 short legs of 3mile alternating throughout the 12 Stages, although the team was weakened with our International runners training abroad as part of there preparation for the Track season the team performed very well, with a mix of experience and youth.
Conrad Franks, Jed Marshall, Dan Johnson and James Cripwell got the team off to a real solid start, fluctuating between the top 20/30 positions Simeon Greenwood, Steven Medd, Sean Hall and Devon Stead all battling away to maintain the clubs position in the top 30, which they did. Going into the last 4 Stages the team was having a real battle with Tyne Bridge and Morpeth to see who could finish first North East team, this continued right through to the final leg, Ross Christie, David Wakefield, Kevin Connelly and Marc Elliott all doing a great job.
The Team finished 33rd out of over 70 teams starting, they also maintain their Northern position finishing 11th, so very good team effort, we now look to finish off the season locally with the Elswick Road Relay on Good Friday and try and retain our Senior title, with great support from our Ladies section in the Womans Race along with our Young Athletes in the Junior Races.