Last Friday night we decide to meet up in Otley to celebrate with a drink or two and a plate of curry!
Matt, Julian, myself and Neil turned up at Jamil's house to kick start off our victory. We then proceeded to 'The Junction' hostilery for some light refreshment. We were joined there by Andy and Mick and some more from the club. The Jewel of India wasn't accomodating so went back to the Balti restraurant next 'The Junction' for a good fill of food and drink. The night was finished off back in pub.

OTLEY ATHLETIC CLUB

WINS IT'S FIRST OPEN RELAY

The club entered two teams in the Yorkshire 6 stage road relays at Don Valley stadium down in Sheffield.

It was to become a day of mixed fortunes.

The 'A' team were in running order Matt Cox, Jamil Parapia, Ian Fisher (capt), Neil Cayton, Julian Mawson and Andrew Robertshaw.

The 'B' team were in running order Zak Whitehead, Malcolm Court, Howard Jeffrey, Mick Jeffrey (capt), Dan Lambert and Paul Clifford.

The 'A' team started of well with Matt keeping in with the leading pack to the finish. Finishing a minute behind York Acorn's Andy Hilton. Jamil made up the gap and took the lead, and increased it to 17 seconds. I was surprised to take over with the lead so soon. From then on, my team were time trialing. I passed over to Neil with a 2 minute 8 second lead. Neil under pressure to keep the lead wasn't in his usual form and ran himself into the ground for the club. He ended up in Hallam hospital till the following Thursday for check's. But he was okay a few hours after the relay. Julian took over with me pilling the pressure on as we had lost ground. He ran his best that day, but Hallamshire did a great job in catching us up. Andrew took over with just 9 seconds gap! I was pulling my hair out. Could a long distance fell runner keep us the lead? He did, but it was close. He did increase the lead a bit more. The gap was around 150 meters to the finish. Okay, the big clubs weren't out in force to beat us. But I think we deserved it. Neil certainly did!

I was so engrossed in my team that I found following the 'B' team a little difficult. At one point on my third leg, both of our teams were seperated by a lap but running almost together with nobody around us. Mick Jeffrey wanted a good balance of runner's in his team. It is difficult to get those last one or two in, but he managed it. His team finished 15th out of 24 starter's. A good result.

I have had some good individual successes, but to see Otley do so well as a underdog club has to be one of my proudest moments. Well done everyone!

Finally sent names off for the Yorkshire 6 stage road relays at Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield on 16th Sept. My final race before Kosice Marathon on Oct 1st.
Past week has been a bit difficult for me. My father has just had a small stroke about six day's ago. He is fit for his age so thankfully he is making good recovery. I ended up missing the club's 'Mile race' at Carnegie last Thursday because I went to visit him at the BRI in Bradford.
I have just done tempo runs from half hour to ninety minutes over the past week. Including my Sunday 22 miler off road along the canal to Rodley and over the tops towards Baildon. I can end up burning 2700-2800 kcal's on that run alone. My metabolism is high so keeping up with the food intake can be a bind. My heart rate monitor reading from complete rest is 32 bpm. I keep at 130 bpm max all the way around at 6, 6.30 min pace. On the track my rate is 150-152 bpm. I've been told it should be higher around 170 bpm? My immune system can get week by it sometimes, but I seem to recover quite fast after a hard run/race.
Last Thursday and Friday were good training day's. Thursday was a race tempo run around Lister Park in Bradford, followed by a 40 min field run later on that night. Friday, I managed to get down early to Apperley Bridge for the impromptu training session around the pitch, with a hour along the canal and local woodlands.
I was joined up with four other Idle AC member's including Secretary Chris Smith aswell as Donna, Lisa F and David. We did a variety of relayed effort's around marked points around the pitch.
Still managing to see my dad in between other things. Sunday's big run was done in blustery conditions. It was no where near as bad as the day before. Still, I did get kitted up for any downpours. It got warm further on and I was beginning to feel the heat.
The Leeds Country Way was also on that day going through the Woodlands area between Apperley Bridge and Horsforth.