Add your name to the booking if you wish to be considered for the team
Note you must be available on Sat 1st April to travel to Sutton park
The club will enter the team and also fund the entry fee
Derby Runner & Midland Counties Athletic Association 12/6 Road Relays. To be held on Saturday 1st April 2023 at Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield
Midland Counties AA 12 Stage/6 Stage Road Relays
1 April 2023 – Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield
This years 12 stage (men) and 6 stage relays (women) take place on Saturday 1 April 2023
The event is a big one in the annual club road running calendar and attracts big and small clubs from all over the region (from Bristol right up to Derby and a bit beyond!) fielding one or more teams. It is also the qualifying event for the English National Road Relay Championships.
The men’s stages are a combination of 8 short legs (3.16m) and 4 long legs (5.38m) around the scenic and undulating grounds of Sutton Park. The women run 4 of the short legs and 2 long legs in their event. The races for seniors start around midday so it is quite a long afternoon but if you don’t want to be there all that time you will know in advance what leg you are running so you just need to arrive in good time for that. You don’t have to stay the whole afternoon either if you need to get away.
Sutton Park is a testing course for those who haven’t run it before but very rewarding to have completed. It is a great atmosphere with hundreds of athletes around, plenty of spectators, refreshments available and running kit stalls to stock up from! And of course it's a great buzz running as part of a relay team and not just individually. We usually have the club tent up, and our flags, so our base is easily identified and you have somewhere safe to leave your kit etc as there will be plenty of team members around.
The standard ranges from international level to a whole range of abilities and age groups represented particularly from the less “elite” clubs so it is worth considering having a go and representing the club at this very popular race.
The club pays the entry fee and we need to enter teams by 26 March. To register an interest please sign up on the session created for this event on ClubPal by close of Saturday 18 March so we have time to submit the entry form. You can always talk to Steve King and/or Ursula Stevens if you want to discuss taking part. Everyone understands if you sign up but have to subsequently withdraw nearer the time although we hope this can be avoided in the final week. Hopefully we can rely on one or two reserves if that happens.
