After a somewhat eventful journey where signalling failure at Coventry forced the entire women’s squad to abandon the train and take taxis the rest of the way to Sutton Coldfield, the women’s race got underway at 12pm with three Serpie women’s teams racing – the first time we’d managed to take three teams to Sutton Park (although we’d had four last year at the relocated Clumber Park event).

The A team finished in 11th place (1:02:34), on par with recent results, with Andrea Clement knocking over a minute off the previous best time for a Serpie woman on the course. The B team finished in an impressive 28th place (1:06:06) – our best result for a B team – and the C team in 52nd (1:12:12) which would have been a good result for a B team not too long ago. The women’s squad goes from strength to strength!

Following the women’s race at 1.30pm, it was time for the men’s race. Like most clubs, we only had one team racing – it’s very difficult to get a B team qualified for the 6 stage relays – but it was a pretty good team and we were hopeful of doing well. After 1:51:04 our final runner – Nick Torry – crossed the line in 23rd place, our best result, and broke his own club record for the 5.85km course with a 17:24 lap, the 12th fastest of the day by anyone.

Full results on race-results.co.uk

See this spreadsheet for a full history of all the Serpie results at the road relays.