York Relay Race - Knavesmire 2nd January 2006

Shaun Purkiss

There was only one race of note over the New Year holiday and that was the Relay on Monday 2nd at York Racecourse. Dave Paver of Nestle Rowntree AC, the organiser, writes

“the Relay moved to the Knavesmire in 1991; it had previously been "round the walls" until traffic, Bank Holiday shopping etc made it too busy and the previous organizers scrapped it, so I picked it up and took it off-road. The course is about 1½ miles but it hasn’t been measured accurately. It follows a similar route to that that used in Schools County matches and previous NYSD fixtures at York, although the start and finish are quite near the gate into the woods so, to compensate, there is a short extra loop at the far end before turning up the last hill. The format is for a team of 3 runners to each run 1, 2 and 2 laps and there is a handicap allowance of 3 minutes for a Female, a Man over 50 or Boy under 12, with a maximum 6 minutes per team. Records of all the races have been kept and each year there are new ones set, both on individual legs and by teams, but two of the best have stood for 15 years: Merv Burn of Thirsk & Sowerby Harriers ran the short leg in 7:55 in 1991 when he, Charles Stead and Rob Burn ran 39:28. This year’s race was won by a Scarborough team of Amy Bridgeman U16G 9:24 * course record, Alex Wheatman U16G 19:41 * course record & B Proctor 17:45, finishing in 46m 50 with the Nestle Men, who set off 6 minutes later, finishing 2nd in 47:29 and running 41:29 - more than 2 minutes outside the course record. There were another 5 new Course Records this year: the Nestle Rowntree Female Team of Emma Macalister-Hall, Dawn Gibbs and Lara Gibbs in 48:59 plus Emma Harper U12G Scarborough 10:11, Nina Griffith SW Nestle Rowntree 18:20, Dawn Gibbs W40 Nestle Rowntree 19:11 and the evergreen coach of Scarborough AC, Mike Willis M60 21:07 for 3 miles!”

There was just one entry from RZH, the Purkiss-McEndoo family team known as Beany Dog Sprinters with 10 year-old Ben running 14.37 for the opening lap, 12 year-old Rosie running 27.03 and the old man, Shaun M40 running 18.48 to bring them home in 26th place in 60:28.