We managed (on our 4th attempt) to finally win the Cleveland Way Relay thanks to some first-rate performances by our members. The well honed Loftus 'A' team had already built up a 30 minute lead by the time they reached Whitby but some sterling efforts enabled us to slowly claw back the deficit and turn it into a 4 minute lead by Hambleton Inn. Jim Bulman eventually brought the team home 8 minutes clear of the Loftus A team with York Acorn taking the 3rd spot. NYMAC Ladies also successfully defended their title ahead of the Marshhouse Ladies team. Credit goes to all teams who finished the event but a notable improvement was made by Marshhouse who on their 2nd attempt knocked nearly 2½ hours off last years time. Once again a big thanks go to the exceptional efforts of club member, event organiser and competitor, Martin Dietrich for making this a highly successful day. 

Victorious members surround the Market Cross at Helmsley.

Organisers Report:

On the way to the start, I was somewhat apprehensive about the 2009 Cleveland Way Relay. The fog was down, there were heavy showers and my journey was slowed considerably by a lorry ahead of me. However  I made it to the start with only 5 minutes to spare. So I quickly handed over the ‘organisers’ gear to Marc Mason, who had offered again to support and follow the NYMAC B team, gave a few words before the start and 5AM on the dot, off we went starting the 2009 event.

The event had all the signs of being special. More teams had entered than had for years. Expected were 8 men’s teams and 2 ladies only teams however on the starting line, we had 7 men’s teams and 2 ladies only teams. One team had suffered with an excessive last minute drop out rate, a problem we all know too well I guess.

There we were, 2 Loftus, 1 York, 1 Billingham, 1 Quaker and 2 NYMAC runners, together with 1 Billingham and 1 NYMAC lady runner heading for Scarborough. I was running for the NYMAC B team with the ambition not to loose too much time to the A team runners. It was a very humid morning with dense fog along the route, hip high wet grass, and overgrown hedges with many wet branches reaching into the path. It did not take long to get soaking wet. With the dense fog, it was difficult to judge the position as any runner that was further than a few feet away could not be seen. I was therefore quite surprised when I caught up the Billingham runner at Cayton Bay, and even more surprised seeing Skiddy, the NYMAC A team runner, only a few feet ahead of me when getting towards the Valley bridge, achieving my aim to stay close to the A team runners. As it turns out, we had not lost too much on the Loftus A team runner either, setting the scene for some interesting competition during the day ahead.

The race developed into a close battle between Loftus A and NYMAC A, with Loftus leading throughout the morning. NYMAC A had an early set back, when Brian Roberts was slowed down by cramps, allowing Loftus to develop a 30 minutes lead. However, with some sterling performances of the NYMAC A morning runners, the lead had been reduced to 11 minutes by the time we got to Clay Bank. 10 minutes of this had been recovered by an excellent run of Dez Fielden between Runswick and Skinningrove. A further 7 minutes were made up between Slapewath and Gribdale by Paul Lowe.

In the 2nd group, the York, Billingham and NYMAC B team were in a constant battle for position. The positions kept changing at every hand-over point, although the teams were never more than a few minutes apart. Only for the NYMAC B team things started to go wrong when at Gribdale no runner turned up to release Shaun Witlock, after he completed his leg from Slapewath. Luckily, Shaun agreed to continue on to Battersby Moor, where once again the runner had not turned up (what are the chances of this happening? We never had a runner not turn up and now two in a row..). Luckily, Roger Tait, who run a leg for the A team in the morning, was not too far away and could be driven to Battersby Moor quickly to run the last morning leg and keep the B team in the race. Unfortunately, despite excellent efforts made by all involved, this put the NYMAC B team behind York and Bilingham at Clay Bank.

In the mean time, the afternoon section had started at 14:00 from Clay Bank. York had some strong runners out for the afternoon team and was in the lead at Osmotherly, but were caught up shortly afterwards by the NYMAC A team, and later struggled with the navigation around the White Horse. So the race continued between NYMAC A and Loftus A. However, by Hambleton Inn, NYMAC A had a lead, and we had Jim Bulman one of the top runners ready to complete a quick last leg for us. However with Dan Midlemas, Loftus too had one of their quickest runners on this leg so nothing was decided until the runners arrived at Helmsley. Jim had a good run and managed to increase the lead by another 2 minutes to a total of 8 minutes 28 seconds. After trying for 4 years, NYMAC A finally managed to win the relay.

While the race for the lead took place, the NYMAC B team battled on with further problems after Mike Shaw struggled with cramps on his leg from Carlton Bank to Osmotherly. But with a strong performance by Trevor Foster we caught the Billingham team by Sneck Yate and with a couple more good performances; a lead of more than 20 minutes was established. Unfortunately this wasn’t quite enough to make up for the problems experienced earlier on, resulting in 5th position.

The NYMAC Ladies team ran their own race, finding their spot between the Loftus B team, and the Quaker team early on. As far s the results suggest, once the positions were adopted, there was little change and no fierce battles for positions later (hopefully, there will be a ladies team report providing more detail?). At the finish, the NYMAC Ladies team came in after Loftus B in 7th position.

In the usual tradition, all final leg runners were welcomed as they arrived at Helmsley and touched the monument. Experiences and anecdotes from the day were exchanged between teams and plenty of fish & chips consumed.

After a few final words the trophies were presented and the date set for the 2010 Cleveland Way Relay, i.e. 27th June 2010 (don’t forget to put this into your calendars!), another long, but very enjoyable relay day came to an end. Looking forward to see you all again in 2010!

Regards

Martin Dietrich martin@nym.ac