The Green Belt Relay 2007

by Graham Brook, Stragglers “Team Kirsty”

The final instructions were issued at 5:45 on Friday night and ended, 'I have just made a big banana cake.....'.  Perhaps our captain was panicking that no-one was going to turn up and the 'Stragglers - Kirsty' team (even the results service knew who was in charge) would be a one girl show.  She needn't have worried - even our twelfth man Mike Bourne was ready and waiting as Van Number 2 completed the early morning pick-ups to rendez-vous at Hampton Court at 7:45.  Even BPTT die-hards don't see the park so early on a Saturday morning.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Green Belt Relay, our team of eleven runners plus previously mentioned reserve, were setting out on a race around London.  And I mean right around London, for the most part outside the M25, where the grass is green, the footpaths less trodden and you get the impression that twelve months can pass in total tranquility as villages wait for the annual stream of approximately 30 runners to pass through.  Each team member sets out to run one leg of between 6 and 13 miles on each day, all finishing at the Hawker Centre on Sunday evening.

In the traditional start to the race (and in order to get those on the first leg safely onto the towpath bound for Staines) Mike Bangham led Olympic silver medallist Sonia O'Sullivan for the first 1/4 mile.  Jon Parry, who in our team counted as relatively experienced (one previous GBR appearance), had organised two eight seater mini-buses.  We travelled in style!  The lead bus, whose primary (some would say sole) objective was to ensure that its passengers arrived at the start of their legs on time (more of that later) departed bound for Staines whilst Van 2, whose passengers could take a somewhat more relaxed approach, set off to man a marshall point.  One of the joys of the relay is the surprise you get when you are running along, perhaps beginning to question your map reading skills and to worry about the tricky junction ahead, only to stumble upon a group of friendly faces, members of fellow teams, to guide you on your way.  Having given Jo Watson a shout of encouragement on Leg 2, Orlando decided that we needed a pre-race caffeine shot.  Coming from a place where Starbucks compete with Neros and Costas on every other street, we were somewhat thrown when we had to take a diversion to Slough simply to get our fix.  Add to this a storming performace from Jo and so it was that we were barely entering the car park at Boveney, the end of her leg, when our phones began to ring and the inevitable question was asked: 'Where are you?'.  We vowed that we would never be late for another pick-up.

Leg 3 passed by un-eventfully as our runner (who shall remain nameless to all but the sharpest of readers) lost 5 places on this one leg resulting in the team slumping to what turned out to be our lowest position of the weekend!  Despite a 6 mile detour by Van 2 back towards Heathrow (caused entirely by yours truly) we did succeed in reaching the finish promptly - we'd never have lived it down if we'd failed to collect our Captain on time.

The motorcade had an easy ride on the next couple of legs as our runners shunned offers of logistical support.  Peter Kennedy, frequent winner of Straggling hero awards, had driven to the end of his leg where he left his bike.  He proceeded to drive himself back to the start, managed to put in a very creditable fourth place before cycling back to his car (that's 12 hilly miles if you were wondering).  I can assure those of you who had been thinking of taking part next year that it needn't be quite this difficult.  Ian Buckingham's approach to logistics was somewhat simpler - he and his fiance drove to the start of his leg, Ian would race along to Great Kingshill where they would be happily re-united.  Not until they reached the start of the leg did Ian reallise that she couldn't actually drive his car.  Having found a driver, Ian set off in style but suffered a bit towards the end with Stragglers Super-Vet Geoff Fisher taking a few minutes.  Our friendly inter-club rivally was hotting up, with the 'soon to be renamed' Coffin Dodgers holding a slender advantage.

Lester Reeves set out on leg 6 more like an Olympic finalist than someone about to run double his weekly mileage in two days.  A relatively new Straggler, Lester hung on determinedly to Liz Souness, finishing barely thirty seconds behind.  His performance on day 2 really should have had him close to the top ten, had an unfortunate map reading error by the group he was in not led them up a slip road onto the M25.  On leg 7 Liz Zass out-supered the super-vets and great runs by Cecilia and Orlando kept up our challenge on the CDs (as progress into the banana cake also continued at pace).

Although much has been made in this report of our competition with the more 'experienced' Stragglers team, it was only Kirsty who became, what can only be described as, obsessed with this aspect of the race.  Just as Jon was being cheered away at the start of leg 10 I received a text message informing the remaining occupants of the lead bus (and by this late stage in the day there were not many of us) that 'We have kidnapped Alan Pemberton (Captain of the Super-Vs).  He will be released upon payment of a ten minute time penalty.'  I kid you not.

Nevertheless, Captain Marvel had pulled a blinder with her team selections and the last two legs put us well up in the mind games.  Credit must go to Jon Parry who pulled out all the stops to finish 8th and 10th on his two stages.  That left just me to round off the day - no pressure they say!  I thought that I'd been allocated the last leg to bring the team a bit of kudos.  A Straggler leading the way into Blackmore and all that. But no.  That was some way from the truth.  It wasn't until ten minutes after I'd finished that the real reason I had been instructed to run my socks off emerged.  The rest of the team were hungry and wanted to be first in the queue for dinner at the Bull Inn.  The psychological damage of a twenty minute lead in the race was nothing compared to the damage done by the 60 minute lead we had when it came to delivery of the main course.

Sunday morning on leg 12 saw one of the team's best, yet most under appreciated, performances.  Clare Nicholson, who ran our first leg on both days (and also ran the results service so was travelling separately) won our team's second yellow T-Shirt as first lady.  Like Colin Montgomery leading Europe to victory in the Ryder Cup (not a bad simile for an engineer - sorry Clare) she had kick started our final day challenge before the occupants of Van 2 had even dragged themselves out of bed.  We had a few nervous moments waiting for Lester to appear from the 'shorter' of his two legs, the worry being that, while Lester was needed to drive the van, Jon was due on the South side of the QE2 bridge for his leg.  In the meantime Kirsty, who's early morning nerves were quite something to behold, redeemed herself by chasing Tim Wood to finish in an all time best position of 19th.

I missed out on the great excitement that was the start of leg 17.  You'll remember the sole objective for the occupants of Van 1?  Needless to say, Orlando had forgotten this at the crucial moment.  That was how he ended up being 20 minutes drive from Tatsfield almost exactly 20 minutes before the start of his leg.  With ten minutes to go I am reliably informed that Kirsty was going absolutely spare.  Mike had offered to run (you may well ask what Van 2 was doing at the start before Van 1 - this will be subject to a public enquiry at a later date) but this would have led to us being disqualified.  Approximately 5 minutes before the leg began there is a race briefing and it is at this point that Kirsty finally reallised that her Mum (Liz) was an elligible runner.  This seemed a good solution to all concerned - expect, of course, Liz, who would now be running the wrong leg, further than intended and not have the faintest idea of the route.  Fortunately Van 1, who's handling characteristics had been thoroughly examined on the twisty North Downs roads, swung into view 30 seconds before the start.  The sliding side door was opened and Orlando leapt out, van still in motion, A-team style, announcing to the whole race that 'I need to pee'.  Not having time to do so before the start he paused at the first opportune moment and, as he passed people to regain position, was asked on a number of occassions 'Have you been yet?'.

Liz, having recovered from her earlier scare, clearly had the addrenalin flowing and stormed up Box Hill.  Her daughter thought that this would be an opportune moment to indulge in a pub lunch.  Needless to say Van 2 was late to the finish for the second time.  Ian took the honours for most mileage for the weekend with a strong run on the hilly Leg 19.  At our final marshalling point Cecilia caused Kirsty and me great excitement as she passed us in a group of 3 women who we thought were in the lead (we'd conveniently forgotten the girl who passed us a minute previously).  Never-the-less it was a very strong run on the penultimate stage to finish as second lady.

Peter had the honour of being anchor man in his third appearance.  Those of us in Van 2 had one of those classic GBR moments as we arrived at Hampton Court just as Peter was beginning to move away from a group of other guys.  Having passed him on the aproach with great cries coming from the back seats he overtook us as we waited to turn onto the bridge.  Half way across we saw that the pedestrian crossing lights were about to turn green and release a barrier of traffic blocking our runner's path.  In a move of great daring, your intrepid reporter (who was back behind the wheel and had by now mastered the difficult art of proceeding in first gear without stalling) formed a moving road block as the rest of the passengers leant out of windows shouting 'Cross Now Pete, CROSS NOW'.  Sure enough, he was safely across barely seconds before the great surge of traffic was released.

The race to the finish was on and for certain members of our team this was not just a desire to see the leaders cross the line.  Added to my list of 'things I have learned on the GBR' (and much in the same way as 'what goes on tour, stays on tour') the occupants of Van 2 discovered that 'what goes in runners should stay in runners' (particularly when in confined spaces).  Van 2 will never quite be the same again.  Having set off at 7:00am the previous morning and congratulated the winners at 7:30pm 'Team Kirsty' thought that we hadn't really taken full advantage of the weekend.  Bar Estillo was graced with our presence for a few celebratory drinks, some food and fortunately there was sufficient garlic to overcome the smell from my sweaty T-shirt (at least that's what I convinced myself and everyone else was too polite to inform me otherwise).

So how come I'm sat here, 24 hours later, writing such a long article? (If you've got this far, many congratulations.)  I've had a lot of fun representing Stragglers over the past couple of years - in the Cross Country, the Road League, and the more recently in a few races where I've been lucky enough to be up near the front - and I've often wondered about writing an article for Stragmag.  However, I've never felt compelled to sit down, put fingers to keyboard and let you know what a bloody good time I've had.  The GBR brings out all the things I like most about the club.  When I try to write about 'fun, friendly competition', 'throwing together people who've never met before', 'camaraderie' and 'working together to get the team around a challenging course' it sounds like I'm advertising for a trite new reality TV show.  But somehow it all works.  I hope what I've written reflects that, that it encourages those of you who haven't done something like it before to have a go, that it gives those of you who work so hard to organise the event a sense of satisfaction (because you really deserve it) and, above all, I hope it goes some ways to explaining why I'm proud to be a Straggler.