Get ready to pass the baton! All you need to know about the Striders World Champs Relay

Back in 2012 to celebrate the London Olympic Games, Striders organised our own relay from Westminster Lodge to the Olympic Park - or as close as we could get to at the time - and all involved agreed it was a great day out.

So, with the World Athletic Championships being held in the capital this summer, we're going to repeat the run using the same route.

We hope the relay will be a good opportunity to bring the club together for a sociable run. There will be plenty of chatting and the occasional stop.

Stopping to take in the view during the 2012 Olympic Relay

WHEN?

Following our poll, the date has been set for Saturday, 5th August.

Apologies to those who can't make it. It was very close between then and the 12th so we had to go with the day when more volunteers willing to drive minibuses and lead runs were available.

We are aware the Bearbrook 10K is the following day and it is a Club Champs race. The relay is not a race, it's a fun, sociable run and you can do it at any pace you wish. So if you are racing, you could still get involved by running at an easy pace, or join in/drop out earlier on one of the legs to run less than eight miles if you can get a lift or use public transport.

The first leg will leave Westminster Lodge promptly at 8am with the aim to get to the Olympic Park by about 4 - 4:30pm. We'll then spend an hour/90 minutes soaking up the atmosphere in the park and then head for home about 6pm.

There will be options to leave earlier if you wish. For the latter legs, you will not need to catch your minibus until later in the day. The last one will leave Westminster Lodge at about 1pm, to be confirmed.

THE ROUTE

The mostly offroad route consists of five 7-8 mile legs. Starting at Westminster Lodge, the route runs roughly south of St Albans via the Colne Valley Walk and then to Aldenham for the first change over.

From there it heads to Aldenham Country Park and then Mill Hill Golf Course for change over number two. Leg three then continues east following sections of the London Loop and Dollis Valley Green Walk before heading south again to change over three near Hendon.

The route is mostly offroad (and hopefully won't be as muddy this year!)

Leg four carries on south, running parallel with the North Circular for a while and then heads south again via Big Wood, Hampstead Heath with great views of Central London. Then there is the longest road section passing through Belsize Park to Primrose Hill - again great views of London here. Then it drops down to the Regents Canal for change over four.

The final leg follows the Regents Canal via Camden Market to Victoria Park where we then follow the Hertford Union Canal all the way to the Olympic Park.

Last time as we were using a coach, we had to leave as soon as we got there because the driver was running out of driving time. This time we plan to use minibuses, driven by members who have volunteered, so we can be more flexible and spend some time in the Olympic Park.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

Please sign up here and let us know your preferred pace and any leg preference.

We will select the groups so that everyone is of a similar pace and it will be down to the Run Leader assigned to each leg to keep everyone together.

Sign up now! T-shirts will be provided

If you can't run, please let us know if you could drive one of the minibuses instead.

Please sign up before Monday, 24th July so we have time to coordinate the legs, leaders and drivers.

T-shirts will be provided so don't forget to select the size you want.

We hope to see lots of you on the day!

Oh, what a night! Striders smash records in the marathon relay

Coach Mike Jubb had a dream of the club coming together to smash the marathon world records, and last night thanks to our speedy runners, super organisers and enthusiastic supporters, it came true!
 
Inspired by Nike's bid to get a man to run a sub two hour marathon, Striders joined forces with St Albans AC to beat them to it by forming a relay made up of runners who could do a sub 66 second lap.
 

Meanwhile, the women teamed up to have a crack at Paula Radcliffe's incredible world record time of 2 hours 15 minutes and 25 seconds, which would involve running 400m splits of sub 77 seconds.
 
As we love to be an inclusive club, we didn't want those who couldn't quite hit the pace to miss out, so we also included some 200m legs.
 
Proceedings got under way at the track at Westminster Lodge at 6.45pm with the young AC athletes stepping up first to show us how it is done with their impressive turn of speed.
 

Under the glare of the floodlights, pumping music played, Jez Cox took to the mic to give some expert commentary, and our statisticians worked their socks off to keep up with the hand overs and record the times.
 
By half way, the men were well-inside the two hour target but the women were told they were four minutes down on Paula's time. A quick recalculation established it was in fact a four minute lead!

The rain started to fall but it didn't dampen the spirits of our supporters on the home and back straights, who stayed all night to cheer on the runners and add to the exciting atmosphere.

The support also came in on Twitter with Paula Radcliffe herself liking a tweet about the women's efforts, while celebrity marathon runner Nell McAndrew and the Marathon Talk podcast urged us on, along with other runners following our progress online.



As we approached the last quarter of the challenge, technology started to fail. Laptops lost power and the clock stopped working, forcing us to rely on good old stopwatches and pen and paper.
 

But the energy of the runners and supporters didn't wane and the baton exchanges continued (almost) seamlessly.
 
Our runners were leaving it all out on the track with most crossing the line gasping for breath and some clutching hamstrings as they gave their all. Many ran multiple laps despite the build up of lactic in aching muscles.
 
As the men continued to speed down the home straight, we entered the last few laps and it was clear we were going to smash the two hour mark – as long as nobody now dropped the baton! 

Cross country captain Cathal Gallagher took the baton as the bell rang for the last leg, handing over to chairman Graham Smith to bring the team home for the last 200m in 1 hour 51 minutes and 56 seconds. Two hour marathon? Smashed it!
 
Meanwhile, it was getting closer to the wire for the women's team who had lost their lead on Paula's time and were now in danger of finishing outside her record.
 
With a quick re-organisation of the running order to switch to 200m legs rather than 400m, there was hope we could still do it.
 
Supported by the men's team who cheered the women on like it was an Olympic final along the back straight, by the last lap the record was back within reach.

 
Laura Hicks took the baton for the final 200m, after doing a number of previous legs, to bring the team home in 2 hours 14 minutes and 39 seconds. A triumph!
 
The records were both achieved despite doubts in the build up that it could be done, proving the difference teamwork can make – and just how fast those elite runners go over 26.2 miles.
 
There has been fantastic feedback from runners and spectators with everyone saying how much they enjoyed it and how proud they feel to be part of Striders.
 
While the runners did their bit, it couldn't have been done without the organisers so thank you Lucy High for her great work organising the women's team, with Gillian Jubb for the AC, and Clair Drage, Jen Conway, Laura Hicks, Sallyann Cox and others for rallying around to help with timing.
 
Thanks to the legend that is Mike Jubb, who organised the men's relay so professionally (he could do this for a living), and our chair Graham Smith for overseeing the whole event from start to finish.
 

Thanks also go to Andy Normile, Bernadette Newby and Philippa Walton for keeping us warm with a steady supply of hot tea, Chris Barr and Matthew Childs for their photography,  Deborah Steer, Peter Poulain and all the girls and boys from AC that gave us such a great start to the evening with some incredible lap times, Cathal Gallagher for organising the gazebo and race clock, Jez Cox for his superb commentary that kept spirits high and Will and Dan at 1Life for supporting our endeavour by letting us stay on the track beyond nine... we didn't need to!

Not only was the event a chance to bring the whole club together, thanks to the efforts of Si Fraser and Laura Hussey we were also able to support some local causes with collections for the St Albans Foodbank and Herts for Refugees – thanks to all who contributed.
 

Thanks also to everyone who came along to cheer and support - the atmosphere was amazing.
 
And finally, thanks to all who ran - around 150 of us in the end - together beating both our relay targets. If you enjoyed speeding round the track then don't forget there are opportunities to compete for Striders over the summer in the Southern Athletics League and Southern Masters League.
 
The evening highlighted what a great club we have - Nike may one day help an athlete run a sub two hour marathon, but they won't beat our team spirit!

It is perhaps best summed up by Binh Tang on our Facebook page: "I love how it started as a flip comment, turned into a joke/dare, then actually materialised into a Striders Classic, truly inspirational."