Norman Woodcock Relays, 25th November 2017
There was just one Claremont team at the inaugural Norman Woodcock relays in Gosforth, but it sounds as though they did us proud. Kat Truong sends this report:
“As relatively new to club running, I’ve been putting my name down for things in an effort to stay on top of this running malarkey. The Norman Woodcock Relay race was one such race where teams of 3 were entered to each run a 1.66 mile lap of Gosforth Racecourse. Great, well I haven’t ran a relay race since school where we practised passing the baton more than actually running the required distance, but 1.66 miles is very doable and I was due to be part of an all female Claremont super team with Nina and Rose. I was first to run and despite it being absolutely baltic, where bare skin shuddered upon meeting the icy cold air, I was lucky enough to have the sun grace me with his presence during my lap of the racecourse. For a good 10 seconds, I bounced along with the brightness of the sun and the green of the grass and felt pretty nice! Running a shorter distance means you have to run a lot faster than usual though and suddenly I found that my lungs and heart were on fire, yet my arms and fingers were frozen and heavy. Well, it was over soon enough and Nina’s turn to zip around the racecourse whilst I regained the ability to breathe. An excellent performance by Nina runner extraordinaire before Rose handed me her sunglasses (not a baton, where was the baton?) and prepared to face the final lap. It was a good racing vibe, we joined the enthusiastic audience clapping in the runners and before long, Rose speeds to the finish line, victorious and unrelenting. Overall, it was a good afternoon and nice opportunity to run fast on flat tarmac paths. Well done, little Claremont super team!”