Athletes arriving at the Ridlins Stadium on the outskirts of Stevenage, for the BMAF Half Marathon, were greeted with strong winds and torrential rain. The two lap course was particularly undulating on the underpass sections and with these conditions any thoughts of records or road bests were quickly dismissed. It was also decided that age category numbers would not be a very successful exercise in these conditions. In fact it was a replica of last year’s event at Bath in many ways, because not only did the weather cause us problems, but the results system, once again, gave us a further headache.
The race produced another replica, the first two BMAF male athletes home, were also the first two male athletes across the line at Margate in the BMAF Marathon. Viesters Dude (Crawley AC) crossed the line in the time of 1hour, 17m and 47secs, winning the 0/45 section with Peter Thompson (Nene Valley H.) finishing just over 2 minutes behind to win Gold in the 0/50 age group.
There were also some close battles for medals in other age groups, in the 0/55s Des Michael (Barnet & D) held off the challenge of Walter Hill (Crawley AC) by under 2mins and in the 0/70s the battle for Gold was won by Derek Surrey (Shaftesbury Barnet AC) from Michael Miller (Hillingdon AC) by just over 2 mins.
First lady home in the event overall and 0/45 Gold Medal winner was Sarah Gee (Reading R/R). Her time of 1hour,19m and 53secs was also good enough to be 2nd BMAF finisher in the race, dividing the first two males. All eyes were on Angela Copson (Rugby & Northampton AC). Angela had broken all the other Four 0/60 British bests this year in BMAF Championship races and needed to run under 1h, 28m, 56secs to break her own British best, unfortunately she just failed by 35secs. Angela and Sarah were among the group of five athletes using this race as a warm up for the forthcoming X/Country International at Birmingham, where they will wear the English Vest.
The largest problem for me, as road race secretary, is the continuing problem of race results. Our branch of the sport relies on third parties, i/e other clubs or outside bodies for organisation. We therefore are only as good as the data inputted at events and this is reflected in the poor results systems that evolve. I have produced some guidelines for hosts of our championships and will try to make some further inroads with organisers to try to eliminate this problem, which is frustrating for our athletes and me personally.
Mel James Road Running Secretary