Running for a club of Belgrave’s calibre and history, they were 12 stage champions in 1934, 1935, 1936, 1947, 1948, 1949 and 1951, medalists in 1930, 1932, 1933, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1960, 1964, 1968 and 1969, it was baffling to see their lack of success during my early years at the club. Clearly the club was full of fantastic athletes in the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s and the 60’s didn’t look too bad either but what happened from 1970 onwards? The club I was in seemed to have numerous internationals within it and yet it seemed almost impossible to get everybody out together for the big events. On the one occasion that this occurred they won the Southern 12 Stage relay, in 1990.
Of course in those early days I didn’t really know much about these relays, it was fun to watch the Southern 12 Stage on Wimbledon Common but I wasn’t good enough for the team so I had no illusions about making the National squad. Funnily enough, due to lack of interest, I got my call into the National squad before I got called into the Southern squad, but the call came too late, I had other plans. So I made my debut at Sutton Park, the same year I made my Southern debut, the year the Southern 12 Stage moved from Wimbledon to Thurrock, 1993.
1993 was the year of my breakthrough but it’d been a ‘nothing special’ winter. Coming into the Southern 12 Stage I was handed a long stage and ran solid enough to seal a place in the National event. Come the National event we had some good runners but we weren’t going to set the world on fire so my coach told me to request an early short stage. There were two reasons behind this, eight days later I was competing in the Surrey 10000m and a three mile leg would give my legs a good workout without taking too much out of me and early in the race I would have other runners around me enabling me to race rather than time trial. The manager allowed me to run 2nd leg and I was to take over from Steve Halliday, a 1500m specialist who had run the 4th fastest long leg in the Southern event. I was expecting a lot from Steve and pictured myself being handed over to somewhere near the front. Steve was in the lead for a while but it appears he went off course and lost a good chunk of time. As runner after runner handed over in front of me I started getting concerned, perhaps something had caused Steve to drop out! But then Steve appeared and handed over to me in 18th position. I ran a pretty good leg, 14:40, but only managed to pull back 3 places. Still I was happy with my run, which proved to be our fastest short stage, on the day, and remains my fastest time around the circuit. With Steve’s incident, Kassa Tadessa was our fastest long stage, 22 seconds faster than Steve. Notably our 2nd fastest short stage was former Commonwealth Games silver medallist, John Gladwin, with 14:50. Shaftesbury Barnet were the winners on the day, with a team that included my, current, Salford team mate, Paul Simons. Belgrave finished in 35th position.
In 1994 I managed to get a short stage at the Southern 12 Stage and blessed with my favoured 2nd leg I brought Belgrave home in 2nd place, managing to run the day’s 12th fastest short stage. Things were looking good and I was keen to get another short stage at the National event, once again the manager obliged. Sadly Steve had now given up competing so it was Kassa who was our lead off man. Kassa had real talent but even I was surprised when Kassa came storming up the hill in 1st position. Some people hate this scenario, and I can understand why as it is a pressure situation, being at the front of a race knowing faster people will be hunting you down, but I love it. Put me in the lead and I’ll do my best to maintain position, which is what I did here, for about 5/6 of the course. Morpeth’s International, Terry West, caught me with about a mile to go but, instead of going past me, he just sat on me. This was a surprise as I’m sure he was capable of pulling away, perhaps he’d given so much to get up to me or didn’t know who I was so didn’t want me to sit on him and kick past at the finish. Whatever reason, we ran hard together along the bottom section before we turned into the hill, then he went for it, leaving clear space between us. I came in 2nd, having run 14:43, which was 10th fastest for that stage and Belgrave’s 2nd fastest short stage, behind Darren Mead’s 13:49 (2nd fastest of all). Kassa had run the 9th fastest long stage of the day but with our next fastest long stage being two and a half minutes slower we understandably drifted down the field to finish 34th, still an improvement on last year’s position and, more importantly, I’d been given a taste of what it was like to lead the National 12 Stage and I wanted more. Swansea Harriers, after three consecutive 3rd places were winners this time.
In 1995 we finished 31st in the Southern 12 Stage and failed to qualify for the National event. This was the only Southern 12 Stage I missed between 1993 and when I left Belgrave, in 2005. The National event was won by Blackheath.
In 1996 I was in great form for the relays. I ran a very good long stage in the Southern event and was looking forward to the National, even tempted to try a long stage this year. Unfortunately other’s weren’t as keen as me and we failed to turn out a team. Bingley were this year’s champions.
In 1997, despite recovering from a strained heart, I ran Belgrave’s fastest long stage at the Southern event, but once again, despite qualifying, we failed to send a team to the National event. The year Salford won the championship.
1998 was the last time the Southern 12 Stage was located at Thurrock. I went out with a good short stage. But once again we qualified yet failed to send a team to the National event, won by Birchfield. I’ll admit I was getting a little frustrated, I loved running in the big events but we’d consistently failed to turn out teams for the National 12 Stage and the Southern and National 6 stage. I considered joining another club but my coach talked me out of it. Then I got injured, thought it was the end of running for me and took the rest of the year off.
Having started back running in December, I was surprised how quickly I got back to reasonable fitness in 1999. I managed to make the Southern 12 Stage team, on a short leg, at the new course in Milton Keynes. I think we surprised a few people by taking silvers. We had almost a complete new team, many of whom had arrived whilst I was injured. This brought a new atmosphere to the club, we were no longer a club that wasn’t interested in major championships, we now believed we could make a difference in them. Nevertheless, come the National event a number of the Southern team were missing and we finished 31st. Still at least we were there and we’d improved on our position from last time we were there, but there was still work to be done before we could get into the top 10. My 15:08 short stage, once again on stage 2, showed how much fitness I’d lost through injury, but I was still good enough for Belgrave’s 3rd fastest short stage, behind Mark Miles (13:49) and Kassa Tadessa (14:50). This was Tipton’s year.
More newcomers joined before the 2000 event and it was getting harder for me to make the team. Only a bronze medal at the Southern event but we improved dramatically at the National, finishing in 17th. I was still on short stage duty but this time on leg 6. My 14:59 was an improvement on last year and meant I was Belgrave’s fastest short stage runner. It was Salford’s win this year.
The 2001 Southern 12 stage at Milton Keynes provided us with more medals as we once again took the bronze. I was on 1st long stage duty and ran one of my best legs, despite having my heels constantly clipped by the WSEH B runner. I don’t know if it was deliberate, but it was a bit annoying and went on far longer than you’d expect for an accidental kick. Leading up to the National event we were all excited, all the top Belgrave runners wanted to turn out and we thought we could win. I wasn’t sure I’d make the team but I did with one place to spare. It was a difficult decision as to who our 12th man would be and when the decision was made it was tough for the number 13 runner. Two days before the big day, Paul Evans pulled out. Frustrating but we still had a great team. Unfortunately our original reserve couldn’t make the trip so we had to put number 14 in instead, but there was so little between numbers 11-13 any two of us could have made the team.
Kassa was back in the team and took 1st leg duty, but unbeknown to us he was not 100%. Despite being up with the leaders he had to stop repeatedly to vomit and trailed in a lowly 35th, 2 minutes 16 seconds behind the leaders. That’s a big gap but not insurmountable. Richard Ward, Paul Freary, Rick Hayman, Justin Chaston and Kevin Nash gave their all for Belgrave and at half way we were up to 4th place and only 49 seconds behind the leaders. Mark Miles was our next man out and he ran the fastest long stage of the day to arrive at the handover in 1st place. I’d given up my favoured 2nd leg for our younger runners but that meant I was in my favourite position, 1st place. I’d never felt pressure like it, we were leading the 12 stage with only 4 stages to follow mine and I was only 10 seconds ahead of Tipton’s Seb Shepley. While we were waiting to start I heard Bud Baldaro telling Seb how to beat me, but that didn’t bother me, it just made me more determined not to let the team down. Three miles later on I handed over to Spencer Barden, the relief was enormous, I’d done my bit and hadn’t let the team down, in fact I’d increased our lead over Tipton to 21 seconds (I ran 15:06). With Spencer, Rob McHarg and Alaster Stewart we arrived at the 12 leg still in the lead, 35 seconds ahead of Tipton. This was just what Lee Hurst was waiting for, he’d been thinking about how he should cross the finish line for the traditional front page photo on Athletics Weekly and surely a runner of his calibre wasn’t going to surrender a 35 second advantage. 15 minutes later it was all over, we finished 2nd to Tipton, by 6 seconds. How could that happen, I still don’t understand it. I can only assume that the pressure I felt increased significantly with each leg. Lee was a great athlete, far better athlete than me, and in his prime but the weight of expectation must’ve been a heavy burden for him that day. It wasn’t all down to Lee, if we could each have pulled out another second on our legs we’d have been victors by 6 seconds. It was a disappointed Belgrave team that headed down the motorway but, despite that I was happy to be in possession of a National silver, I’d been around longer than most of the other guys and unlike the other long time Belgrave runners, Justin and Kassa, this was my biggest achievement to date. Sure I was disappointed but it was better than 35th or not turning up. Besides my personal disappointment was still to come.
The following year manager, Alan Mead, was determined not to lose again. The team was strong and the win came, a victory of nearly six and a half minutes. Unfortunately for me I was the one who was in the position of consideration for the 12th man alongside Charles Herrington and despite bringing the team home, on last leg, to our first victory in the Southern event for 12 years, it was Charles who got the nod. I’d been reserve in previous events and it’s not nice, I’m a doer not a watcher, but this time it was particularly galling knowing that I could have run minutes slower than I was capable of and still won a National gold, not that I would have run slow. It was a long day for me but I did get to run last leg for Redhill, understandable it wasn’t the same as running in the Belgrave team and my time of 15:18 shows that. To be honest it didn’t make up for missing the biggest day in my Belgrave life and I shouldn’t really have done that but hindsight is a great thing. I don’t blame anybody else for my lack of inclusion, I should have run better at the Southern event, though I ran a pretty good leg, it’s always tough to make those decisions and there is always somebody who is going to miss out, it just so happened, on this occasion it was me. At the age of 37 it made me realise I’d had my opportunities for Belgrave and it was unlikely I’d ever make the 12 stage team again, so I made the decision that next year I was going to run the London Marathon.
2003 and we won the National 12 Stage again. Once again I was, surprisingly, in the running for a place. The marathon training had brought me into some good form and I’d had my best run in the Southern event, bringing the team in 7th on leg 1. But with the team we had available for the National it wasn’t good enough and I was once again travelling reserve. Yes it hurt, but after last year I’d written myself off so the pain wasn’t quite as bad.
At the grand old age of 39 I was surprisingly back in the team for our 2004 challenge. I wasn’t even in the running for the Southern event until I shocked everybody by winning the Wimbledon 10k in a 31:56 clocking. That gave me a short stage for the Southern event and I duly ran my fastest short stage at the event. Come the National and I was in the team, another short stage, but as I’d proven I could hold my nerve it was down at leg 10. I took over more than a minute and a half behind leaders, and eventual winners, Aldershot and 3 seconds behind, eventual bronze medallists, Salford. I made no headway, my old training partner and friend, Kevin Quinn, pulled Aldershot further ahead and Duncan Mason took Salford a further 3 seconds clear of us as my 15:15 was the best I could muster. We eventually overhauled Salford and I became a twice silver medallist.
And that was the end of my National 12 Stage career to date. The following year I switched to Herne Hill Harriers and never made it into their National 12 stage squad. Now at Salford I would have been in their squad, not really sure if I’d have made the A team, who went on to finish 3rd in the Northern champs (run in conjunction with the National event this year, due to earlier cancellation) but I definitely would have made the B squad. And who should surprise everybody with a win this year, my old team Belgrave, much changed from the team I last ran in, to be expected after 9 years.
This week sees the London Marathon. This year I only have one athlete I have trained for this event, but I have a lot of friends who will be running it, so good luck to all of you, run well and enjoy this special occasion. Of course it’s not been the best preparation for a marathon, following the awful events in Boston last Sunday and ongoing as the hunt is on for the suspects.
As for my current status, with regards to running, I’m almost there, I’m at that difficult point where you keep feeling that it will be one more day and then it’s not quite right so it’s another day. This next week will probably try my patience more than the last eight, but patient I must be, even though my presence is requested at various races.
Written by Roger Alsop
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