9 March 2009	STAFFORD 20 & RELAY
	20 mile debutants Steve Bazell and Michelle Ross-Cope were the stars of the show as they battled to excellent performances in difficult wet and windy conditions. Michelle's time was a course record by 6 minutes and both performances were worth at least 2 minutes faster in better conditions. As both are entered for the London Marathon in April this was excellent preparation for that event - surely London can't be tougher!  The men also completed 2 relay teams, showing that City of Stoke's senior endurance section is perhaps starting to awake from its slumbers of recent years. On the first leg for the A team Brian Cole used the 8 miles distance as a hard training run in preparation for the Fleet Half Marathon next week-end, and although nearly a minute adrift of a flying Ben Gamble from Stone Master Marathoners, he professed himself well satisfied with the run after a another big training week.  On the second leg I started perhaps a bit too conservatively, ran too fast in the middle against the strong wind and died at the end - so much for experience! A time of just over 33 minutes for the 6 mile leg suggests that my return from semi retirement is starting to get back on track. However I was unable to make much inroads on an excellent run from Stone's second competitor which still left us about 45-50 seconds adrift of Stone on the final leg.  Anchor man on leg 3 Ian Milner has been injured or ill for too long, and it was great to see his commitment again as he very, very nearly got us up to a win with a real gutsy performance. Coming up to the finish the lead Stone runner was only a few seconds ahead, but unfortunately went past the turning, where as Ian went the right way. This meant that Ian technically finished first, but we agreed to give the result and prize to Stone because they would have just done it without the mistake and deserved a hard won victory. I am sure that this effort has done Ian a world of good and we can look forward to much improved performances in the coming months. For the B team we used Steve Bazell running in the full race as our first leg runner and Steve's strong early running made sure they were in always in contention for a top 3 placing.  On the 2nd leg Ant Faulkner had never before run at sub 6 minute miles but he did here with an excellent sub 35 minute clocking for 6 miles, and this shows great improvement for someone who has been running seriously for less than a year. Even better for Stoke AC Ant is only in his mid 20s and therefore has many years of improvement left. On the last leg for the B team 21 year old Dave Lee stormed round to make sure that Stoke AC had another team in the top 3. Dave has been ill recently, but his run here after his great improvement during the cross country season suggests that like Ant, Dave will be pushing the oldies like myself out of the top spots within the next 6 months or so. Overall it was great to see this much better senior turn-out in a local road race and we will now start to plan our participation in other races with a lot more enthusiasm. Photos from Mick Hall and Bryan Dale Full results
	Stafford 20 - full race 3. Steve Bazell 6. Michelle Ross-Cope Relay - 20miles 2. Team A 3. Team B	1.56.34 1.59.04 - 1st Lady & Course Record 1.52.58 (Brian Cole, John Danahay, Ian Milner) 1.58.27 (Steve Bazell, Ant Faulkner, Dave Lee)