Leeds Relays 2007

Rise of the Machines

On a typical Northern Winters's day, 1st Dec 2007, some of the more intrepid 14acers ventured up to Leeds to take part in the 40th ever Leeds University Relays.

Depleted by not only the abscence of several top players, but also injuries to Foster, Gaunt and Michaelson, it was not possible to field a full women's team.

However Lizzie Spencer ran for the Student 'C' team in a very creditable 13:15 which would have easily placed her in the uni 'A' team had they been so inclined.

By this point, as is usual, the course was cutting up nicely after the overnight rain, which left the men facing the usual slog, and several tricky corners.

After a extensive recruitment policy, Martin managed to rope in 'Ben' who not only was actually Nottingham Alumini but a very handy triathlete to hand. The only problem being that this left us with 7 men, for a 6 man team!

At this point, things got a bit heated, with Hodson, Woonton, and Bareham claiming not to have run since the Fresher's race and they couldn't possibly get round 2 and bit miles of field. Luckily, firstly leaf put his foot down and told them they were all running, but Rob Hughes, or Machine Senior as he is becoming more commonly known, made the outrageous decision to do all 6 legs, given there was no B team, he became the B team.

Greenleaf led off on first leg, producing his usual strong performance, his time of 11.06 his quickest ever round the Leeds Realys course, and a full minute quicker than last year, albeit in better conditions. New recruit Ben then took over, and another solid run of 11.20 meant that 14AC were in a fairly decent position.

Steve was next up, and he'll be the first to admit that this wasn't his finest hour in the green and gold vest. However, he had more than a decent excuse, the incredible rigours of a cross-channel swim had left him a little lacking in running fitness, and in this respect his time of 14.33 was no disgrace.

Next up was Bareham, whose gutsy 13.08 will certainly act as a catalyst for future faces.

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say a repeat of the epic Bareham Woonton battles of 2004/05 is eagerly awaited!

Next up was the boy Hodson, whose straight line speed doesn't exactly endear him to this type of event, so 12.31 was a pretty good effort in the increasing gloop.

Then in a tactical move, came Junior Machine.

He had 5 legs to warm up and get those motors running, and this clearly worked as he set off like a house on fire. the boy was moving. There was even a hint he could break the time of the leaf. But the early pace used up a bit more fuel than we may have realised and Machine was just pipped to the post in an epic sprint finish, but the time of 11.23 was more than consolation.

Overall 14AC finished 27th out of 39 teams.

After this, there was the usual evening shebang, hosted by el Baptiste originally, as some lovely Winter Pimms was consumed, amid a rather heated drinking game. (don't ask Lucie to count your prescription!)

Then it was to on to A.S.K (again) for an Italian.

Off to the Union for the main event, beer racing, where 14AC managed a new best performance of 2nd, winning their heat convincingly, and beating the might of Alehouse in the final, just losing to Doss AC 'a' (population in the bar 50 - 14ac - 9)

Congratulations go to Andy, Steve, Matt and Leon.

Then it was onto a beach club for more mirth and merriment, with a peak haziness level of 8.7 attained at precisely (as planned) 00.29. This was accuratley recorded in a scientific test by leaf and baptiste.

Then onto Leeds best kebab shop. Apparently.

Luckily none of us were woken at 7 in the morning by the departing Gaunt.

See you all at Hyde Park hopefully, where we have a podium position to defend.

The Baptiste.