25.03.12 Interested in the Southern Road Relays at Milton Keynes?

If you're interested in running these excellent relays, pse contact: women Ruth Jones 07878 391834; men Ray Church 01733 260716. We're keen to get as many as we can along, so do give us a call. Here is some more information about the event, including details about the tug of war afterwards.

Saucony South of England Road Relays

The South of England Men’s 12-stage and Women’s 6-stage Road Relays are on Sunday 25 March. You may have read in Athletics Weekly recently that the race will be held over a new course based at Stantonbury Athletics Stadium, Milton Keynes (MK14 6BN) on redways (cycle routes) around Linford Woods. A map of the course can be found
by clicking here.

The organisers had the courses measured last week and the short stage is 5.053km and the long stage is 7.664km, which makes both courses slightly shorter than in previous years.

As Marshall Milton Keynes Athletic Club manages the stadium we are able to allow tents to be erected on the infield and on the grassy banks. There will be changing rooms, showers and refreshments in our clubhouse next to the track and we will bring in extra toilets to supplement the 10 toilets in the clubhouse. If the weather is warm we will put on a barbecue close to the clubhouse. Car parking will be at Stantonbury Campus next to the track, with the car park at the end of Soskin Drive reserved for officials (to minimize the flow of traffic across the course during the event).

There will, usual be prizes for the fastest 3 legs in the relay, the first three teams, the first B team, the most improved team (based on the average finishing position in 2009 and 2010), and a spot prize (which is only awarded if a member of the winning team is present.


Tug-of-war competition

At the end of the races there will be a fun tug-of-war competition, organised by our hammer coach, Jack Kee, for men’s teams of eight runners (restricted to those competing in the corresponding relay team) and women’s teams of four runners (restricted to those competing in the corresponding relay team). It will be best of three and there will be prizes for the winning teams. I hope your athletes will stay on and compete in this event, starting at 4:30pm on the infield, before the main prize giving at approximately 5pm.

We are trying to encourage new teams to try this iconic event which signals the end of the club winter season. If you know of rival teams who could be thinking about doing this event please encourage them to do so. We would really like to get back to the numbers that were taking part in this event 20 years ago.

All the latest news, entry forms and past results from Milton Keynes can be found on the Marshall Milton Keynes website.