Heanor Running Club enjoyed probably the most successful combined team result in the club’s history with fifth-place finishes for both the men’s and women’s teams at the Midland 12 & 6 Stage Road Relays last weekend.

The annual event saw the yellow and blue make its second appearance in the Midland’s event and the club did itself proud in both races as a total of thirty six runners (plus more on the sidelines supporting) saw the club field two teams in both events.

Kicking off at 12:00pm, the men got underway and tackled twelve stages – four long stages of 5.08 miles ran alternately from the starting gun, with the remaining eight short legs of 2.69 miles sandwiched between and comprising the final five stages. 

The route was slightly altered to the usual route used, with the course continuing on at the end of each lap a la the 6 & 4 Stage Road Relays instead of turning left at the lake and heading down towards the Toby Carvery pub (avoiding the Sunday roast dinner diners was the rumoured reason why).

Conditions at Sutton Park, Birmingham were delightful and brought out many walkers and cyclists that also populated the course.

Stuart King, in his now customary position on first leg, set the ball rolling and paced his run well on the first long stage to come from tenth at halfway to sixth at the finish.

Recent results, including the fourth-place finish in the Midland 6 Stage Road Relays last September and top-10 finish in the National XC Relays, suggested Heanor RC’s men’s “A” team would be in amongst the top-5 and possibly challenging for medals, depending, of course, on what the other teams had in their lockers.

V40 Tony Weatherson stepped up from the “B” team after a late withdrawal twenty four hours before and was as reliable as ever on the first short leg before handing over to Dale Annable.

Currently in the throes of marathon training, Dale found the relatively ‘short’ distance of 5.08 miles a shock to the system but still managed to pull back a couple of positions and hand over to the returning Ben Radbourne inside the top-10.

The Loughborough 5000 at the beginning of the month aside, this was Ben’s first competitive outing for Heanor RC for two years but he used his talent and experience to run the fourth fastest HRC short leg of the day.

Chris Rainsford gained four places on leg five and handed over at halfway to another returnee Adam Biggs in eighth. Adam maintained the position before James Mee brought the team into the top-5 for the first time with the fastest HRC long leg and twelfth fastest time of the day on stage seven.

12 Stage debutante Shane Rice and Steve Ashmore, originally down to run second leg until the enforced reshuffle the day before, did a cracking job in establishing the team’s top-5 position.

Matt Bickerstaff ran an impressive 14:02 (inside the top-30 short stage times for the day) to build a healthy advantage ahead of sixth before Ben O’Connell and the experienced Ashley Deeming finished the job off to secure a club-best fifth place.

Notts AC won the race for the second successive year ahead of Tipton Harriers whilst Bristol & West edged out Coventry Godiva for third.

Considering the size and calibre of clubs in front & taking into account the club’s debut 19th-place finish in the region in 2012, this result shows just how far the club has progressed in the two years since.

Widely-considered one of the highlights on the club racing calendar, the men’s “A” team were well inside the top-25 required to qualify for the National final at the same venue in just over two weeks’ time.

56 teams started the men’s race and only 42 had the repertoire of twelve runners to field complete teams. In addition to the “A” team’s efforts, HRC were also one of only eight clubs able to field a complete “B” team.

Lee Perkins, ahead of his debut marathon in London next month, kicked things off on the opening leg and brought the team home inside the top-40. Sidelined through injury for over a year, Tim Robinson made his competitive comeback on leg two before handing over to Andy Basey on the second of the four long stages.

Following the combined efforts of Chris Murfitt, marathon-bound Carl Hughes and Paul Mercer, the team maintained their consistency to sit 38th at halfway.

Paul Winfield gained two positions on the last of the long legs before Richard Charlesworth, Steve Wardle, Andy Marriott, Jeff Everitt and relay debutante Brett Beeson completed the team’s efforts to finish 40th overall – another improvement on the club’s last showing when we were only able to field one complete side.

Full results

Photos: Facebook

High-fives all round for HRC: 6 Stage report HERE