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SDW Relay B-Team Report

Thursday 13th June 2019

Bobby Searle gives her thoughts on this year's SDW Relay:

For 2019 the B team comprised a mixed gender group of myself (Bobby), Amelia, Andy, Liz, Tony, Richard who was our team manager and Jim our driver. I had every intention to skip the relay this year but was persuaded by Amelia and Richard to join the team after former team member Cyril had to pull out after injury. I was easily talked into it as:

1. I wanted to help my fellow club members out.

2. The event was a good opportunity to get out and do some running after a long period of
not feeling motivated to run or race.

Though a very similar running experience (I am familiar having run the relay twice before in recent years: tired legs, food cravings, dehydration etc.), the brutally honest p*ss-taking humour of the B team made it a slightly different experience overall. A bit like sibling banter, it became more of who could verbally outwit the other. 

The highlights of the day were:

• Amelia got lost on leg 2, and almost again on leg 8
• Star runner had to be Tony who earned us back a lot of minutes by finishing faster than his predicted times
• We finished within 2.37 minutes of our predicted time
• Richard celebrated his last day of being in his forties

The B team was positioned 5th out of the B teams but this did not matter to me. Everyone ran as hard as they possibly could, and it was about taking part and taking what I could from the experience such as inspiration, training and enjoyment.

I recommend this race to anyone who likes running out on the downs, or wants to get to know their club members a bit more, as spending 18 hours in a minibus together and racing as part of a team is a sure way to get to know each other!