"A day in the life of a Le Jo'g team"
UnumProvident

Stage 14 - Run Report Lostwithiel to Lands End

Date  Saturday 16 September 2006
Distance 71.5 miles
Runners (in running order) Rob Candy, Peter Dewis, Jan Oosterbroek, Paul Davies, Andrew Stacy (Stage Captain), Susan Ring, Nick Gleeson
Cyclists Ivan Storey, Phil Evans and Kevin Bounds

The EMC "all stars" team of "athletes" gathered in the village of Lostwithiel during Friday afternoon.  We were in time to cheer in the last UP runner of the day, reacquaint ourselves with the relay organisers and meet up with the now famous SeeAbility tandem rider, Ivan.  On meeting Ivan we were immediately struck by what a great character he was and his expertise on weather forecasting merely by looking at the clouds.  This year our team had an international element to it as Jan Oosterbroek, the General Manager of UP's former Dutch business had flown in especially from Amsterdam to take part in the relay and raise money for SeeAbility. The race organisers reported that this year's event had run very smoothly with no mishaps and no one getting lost - they were to eat their words the next morning!  We also had the chance to meet up the other team of UP runners, mainly from the Dorking Actuarial and Customer Care departments, against whom we would be racing the next morning.

The serious matter of pre race fuelling took place at the River Brasserie in the village. There appeared to be little evidence of pasta loading.  Instead, like lambs to the slaughter many of the team chose "light" deserts of crème brulee with double cream ice cream and with clotted cream on top! 

Ivan's weather forecast for Saturday morning was spot on as the day dawned with clear blue skies and a light cool breeze - its was going to be excellent running conditions.  Our first runner, Rob, was to be the EMC secret weapon. Rob who had been in the army for 17 years was built like a whippet and runs like one too.  Our plan was that Rob should set off and create an unassailable lead so that the rest of our team could cruise to a stage win.  However, we had not planned on the opposing team also pulling out their ace runner, Sally Young the fitness advisor from the Dorking gym, to run the first leg. It was clear both Rob & Sally meant business when their warm up run and stretch was at such a pace that it made the rest of us tired just watching them.

With TV crew filming and enthusiastic support from the teams Sally and Rob set off together, stride by stride, off up a very long steep hill.  This hill was the first of many and although very scenic, set the shape of the "pleasantly undulating" race route for the rest of the day.  After a quick breakfast back at the hotel the rest of the team set off in pursuit looking to catch Rob and Sally up. It was only after 2 miles that we were met with the ashen faced organisers saying they had lost the runners who must be lost somewhere in the labyrinth of country lanes covering some 25 square miles.  This gave us all the opportunity to complete a search and locate exercise in the lanes that were barely wide enough to drive down and had high earth backs and hedges that made it impossible to see beyond the next bend.  A panicky 45 minutes followed as everyone searched frantically for the lost runners but eventually they were found back on the course, having run an extra 3 miles and swearing that a marker arrow had been missing.  When Rob & Sally reached the first hand over point, still running stride for stride, the much relieved organisers, clocked their 12.5 mile run at around 1:47 minutes - very impressive.

While all the running teams were having all their fun and games Ivan and Phil had set off on the tandem to cover the first 37 miles of the day.

It was then Peter's turn to show what he was made of.  Some runners like the sound of music in their ears when they run and Peter is one of those.  Within minutes he had put his headset on and was pacing out accompanied by some heavy metal music (not Maria von Trapp).  Whatever the music was it did the trick as Peter ran like a metronome, managing to pull away from the other team, completing the 9.4 miles in an impressive 1:57 and handling over to Jan with an 11 minute lead.

The Cornish countryside was far from flat.  This meant that Jan, who was only used to running on the level, was going through a voyage of discovery on his run.  Considering he was the oldest member of our team (65), his run of 1:49 for the 9.6 miles set the standard for the rest of us to follow. At this stage we were still ahead of the other team by 10 minutes.

Paul was our next runner.  Paul deployed a different running tactic to Peter. Instead of listening to music Paul had a wrist watch that bleeped furiously at him if he slowed down too much.  He assured his team mates that it didn't really give him an electric shock if he walked, but funnily enough there were no takers when he offered to lend it out. Paul's time of 1:52 for the 9.5 miles was a new personal best and both teams finished the stage within 2 minutes of each other.

Round about this stage Phil said his goodbyes to the team and handed over the tandem with Ivan to Kevin to ride the glory leg to Lands End. 
Next up was Andrew who had volunteered to race the longest leg, a massive 12.1 miles that included a very long climb out of Redruth.  Andrew looked a bit like the bionic man with a double knee support. But that didn't seem to affect his progress.  At this stage it was such a pleasant day that "road runner" Rob decided to join Andrew for the leg and they ran most of it together. They completed this in a great time of 2:29.  However, by the end of the stage the other team had pulled away to a lead of 8 minutes.

Susan's challenge was to complete the 10.1 miles and see if she could regain any time back. Her opposing runner was Hannah, who having completed the John O'Groats stage last year was fully up for the challenge. All went brilliantly, including a bit of "self navigation" by Susan.  Through a combination of perseverance and dogged determination Susan breezed into the change over with at time of just over 2 hours.
The final runner was Nick, who was running against "actuarial" Dave who at the change over had a lead of 7 minutes.  Once the rather challenging hill out of Penzance had been climbed the race to catch the other team was on! It took Nick just over an hour to catch Dave and eventually complete the leg in 78 minutes.  That left just the final 1.5 miles run down to Lands End. Nick completed this crossing the finishing just as Ivan and Kevin came down the hill on their tandem.

Once both teams of runners and cyclists were safely across the finishing line everyone received medals for competing.  The team captains, Andrew and Clare, jointly received a rather large cup on behalf of UP for the end to end team winners.  But by far the loudest applause was given to Ivan who had completed his lifetime ambition of cycling the length of the country with help from SeeAbility and his new friends at UP.  Ivan was an inspiration to us all and a real super hero for SeeAbility.

Thanks team….thanks organisers….thanks Ivan …thanks SeeAbility