National relay silver for Bedford Men

This relay is contested over four legs of 5K, each leg comprising two laps of a very testing undulating loop.

With more than 150 teams toeing the start line, including all the top teams in the country, it is one of the most anticipated events of the season.

With Bedford fielding their strongest squad since 2019, a top 3 placing was considered a remote, but realistic target, if all ran well.

Ed Blythman on Leg 1 wasted no time in declaring his intentions, storming to the head of the field within the first few hundred metres. B team runner Ben Davies caught the bug and followed close behind.

Despite slipping back slightly, both athletes survived this slightly impetuous start to get both A and B teams off to a flying start, with Ed coming home in 12th place in a time of 15:11, and Ben 27th with 15:34.

Ben Alcock soon showed that he had recovered from his great 64:06 Half Marathon (Valencia!) last weekend, by gradually working his way through the field, eventually coming home in 5th place in a time of 15:00.

With half the race now completed, the cream was beginning to rise to the top with 5 of the main expected medal contenders beginning to close up together, although early leaders Milton Keynes Distance project still had a big lead.

The excitement really began to build towards the end of lap 1 of stage 3 as the big 4 of Shaftesbury, Cambridge & Coleridge, Highgate and Bedford all came together gradually closing on and then overtaking the leader. Shaftesbury’s Dylan Evans then broke away to open up a 14 sec lead.

Meanwhile, Harry Brodie for Bedford was having a great run, and found himself in a race over the last half a lap with C&C International Jack Gray, Highgate’s Alex LePetre, and a charging Ellis Cross for Aldershot. Harry’s sprint took him clear and brought him home in 2nd place with a time of 15:12.

With just 4 secs now covering 2nd to 5th places the scene was set for a classic battle for the medals.

There were some concerns regarding how Jack Goodwin would run as he is a fireman and had just finished a night shift that morning. But Jack proved equal to the task as he went out hard but controlled, gradually increasing his lead on the 3rd placed athlete, to run 15:06, and bring Bedford home to a well deserved 2nd place, and the silver medals.

This was a first class team performance, with a mere 12 seconds covering the individual times of all four of the Bedford team.