Race Date: Sunday, 25th September
After a year on holiday in Redcar, with its straight-as-an-arrow out-and-back blast along the sea-front, the autumn edition of this year’s Northern Road Relays returned to Manchester to wiggle its way around the outside of the Etihad and its car park once again.
Despite the usual last-minute squad reshuffle, we were able to put out strong teams in both the men’s and women’s races, which is a good job as the competition here is always on another level.
These events are special for the opportunity to run for the club in a team, but also to rub shoulders with incredible athletes in a field smaller than you get most weeks at Graves parkrun.
Men’s Results
Rob Byers, flying
The men’s race consisted of 6 legs of a little over 4-and-a-quarter miles each, coming out at not far off a marathon overall.
Our team finished 72nd out of 110 in 2:25:15.
Lead-out man Rob Byers ran an impressive 21:29 for his leg, taking 34 seconds off Phil Skelton’s Striders record for the course.
The winning men’s team from Leeds City AC got around in 1:59:17, and featured Philip Sesemann, top 10 finisher at the London Marathon both this year and last. The fastest leg time was 19:17, run by Hugo Milner of Derby AC. Full men’s results are here.
| Name | Leg Time | 5k Equivalent | Team Pos |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rob Byers | 21:29 | 15:38 | 41st/133 |
| Richard Pearson | 23:23 | 17:01 | 49th/130 |
| James Fulcher | 25:23 | 18:28 | 70th/127 |
| Sam Brown | 25:02 | 18:13 | 70th/125 |
| Malcolm Baggaley | 26:29 | 19:16 | 76th/121 |
| Seth Kirby | 23:29 | 17:05 | 72nd/110 |
5k equivalents based on Riegel’s formula and a distance of 6.75k.
Women’s Results
Abbie Pearse
The women’s race consisted of 4 legs. In previous years in Manchester, women have run slightly shorter legs than men, but this year we saw distance equality introduced, adding an extra ~650m for each runner.
So although Abbie Pearse’s time of 24:35 was 23 seconds slower than our fastest ever leg here, we can definitely call that a club record for the course too.
Our team finished 21st out of 84 in 1:44:39, improving three places on our best position at this event, despite the field being almost twice as deep this year.
The winning women’s team was from Salford Harriers, and they took 1:32:29 for the ~17 mile course. The fastest leg was by Mollie Williams of Stockport Harriers, who ran 22:21. Full women’s results are here.
| Name | Leg Time | 5k Equivalent | Team Pos |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abbie Pearse | 24:35 | 17:53 | 14th/98 |
| Gillian Allen | 25:30 | 18:33 | 11th/95 |
| Kathryn Liddiard | 29:27 | 21:26 | 27th/92 |
| Caroline Brock | 25:07 | 18:16 | 21st/84 |
5k equivalents based on Riegel’s formula and a distance of 6.75k.
So overall it was a very successful outing, with some great performances. Thanks and well done to all of our runners for showing the club colours, giving it their all, and doing us proud.
Steel City Striders Northern 6 & 4 Stage Road Relays 2022 Squad