#Juneathon Day 19 – Shugborough Relays

Pickles had been on at us for weeks – our club men’s captain wanted to enter as many teams as he could into the Shugborough Relays – an annual charity event organised by our rivals and friends, Stafford Harriers. I was on standby, but ended up donning the Trentham vest and taking up the second leg of the two mile course around the magnificent Shugborough Estate; The UK’s only complete working historic estate.

The course is described a mixed terrain: field, road(ish) surface, woodland path, more field… upon arrival we gathered and went about the usual Trentham Running Club ‘High-Viz’ warm-up by jogging round the course and generally being a nuisance. It was hot and muggy, but the route seemed OK. Just two miles right? We soon discovered that another of our number had bailed and my team was down to three men – Craig, our team lead and a powerful runner, decided to run both first and final legs… what a guy.

Shugborough in the evening sun

After ten or so short minutes Craig blasted over the line and it was my turn. I set off at the same time as a Harrier who was about ten years old. My goodness, there’s some athletic kids out there! A great thing about this relay is that the adults and kids of mixed abilities are all running on the same course at the same time, and I was overtaken by about forty (yes, 40) of the little tykes from clubs far and wide, and good on them. I ran as fast as I could, and felt seriously sick by the time the end was in sight. The little Harrier re-took me on the line, and I congratulated him accordingly. Superb effort.

Trenthafolk Junior was also running, and ran the whole course without stopping, which delighted me… the fact that he was on the final leg but set off at the same time as the third leg runner (!) didn’t matter to me… he was delighted when he finished, to have done it and to have competed in the same race as his Dad! Today Trentham made up about 5% of the record breaking field with 16 teams… There may have even been more of us than Harriers!

I have no idea how we fared, and no doubt the results will be up soon, but that was the toughest #Juneathon run to date, despite the short distance. The total mileage for today, including warm-up is four miles, but it feels more like ten! Well done to everyone who ran, especially the Green Army and the Juniors, and very I’m proud to be counted amongst their number.

Juneathon 2013 Stats
Total Miles = 112.99
Total KM = 181.84
Total Calories = 13,776

Equivalents
Big Macs = 28.1
Pints of Strongbow = 57.4
Days Worth Calories = 6.9
Journeys to Work = 8.13

UPDATE: 7:28 Min miles on ropey Juneathon legs… I’ll settle for that 🙂