Bingley Harriers entered 3 ladies teams into the Millennium Way Relay this year with a team for anyone of any pace or experience. With amazing teams, brilliant reserves and some last minute changes following injury and illness, our fastest team were the overall ladies winners with our 2nd team finishing brilliantly in 2nd place and our 3rd team in a very respectable 7th, ahead of Saltaire Striders Ladies. Huge congratulations and thank you to everyone who contributed in some way.

For Leg 1 we had Yaz Small & Becky Jane leading the way and getting us an almost 2 minute lead ahead of a fast Keighley ladies leg by Hinda & Niamh. They managed to do this despite Becky falling on the final sharp bend and Yaz providing the steri strips for her partners elbow! Our 2nd team had a very solid partnership of Shona Stone & Caroline Francis after Caroline stepped up to change team the day before when Emma Moran & Sophie Thackray were unable to run. They finished as 4th ladies team despite Caroline falling and got the team in a great place on a very fast leg. Our 3rd team also had a last minute change with Caren Crabtree & Vanora Mc Cullagh moving into the leg the day before with Caren ensuring Vanora had a great experience in her return to racing for the club in relays and getting the team result confirmed

For Leg 2 our fast team then had the super speedy Hayley Norse & Amicia Lee increasing the lead, despite Amicia only moving to that leg the day before. They were the fastest ladies pair on the leg and increased our lead to 8 mins ahead of Baildon Runners. The 2nd team had the brilliant Olivia Francis and Chloe Morton finish as 3rd fastest ladies pair, with both doing their first senior relay for the club and having stopped briefly to assist an Otley runner who had fallen and been injured. The 3rd team also had a brilliant pair with Michelle Garbutt and Sarah Jones starting in the mass start as one of only two pairs but finishing with a great time just behind Keighley & Craven but ahead of Saltaire Striders.

For Leg 3 we then had Donna Edmondson & Nicola Jones taking over from Hayley & Amicia, with Nic stepping into the team the day before. Donna & Nic were up against a fast Baildon pair but managed to keep the lead of 7 minutes despite Donna having 2 shoelace re-ties during the leg, a group of cows at a stile and a very busy bypass crossing. Denise Wright & Ann Marie Drake were the pair for the 2nd team and had a great run, maintaining the teams overall 4th position and giving Ann Marie her first experience in a relay for the club. Carla Goodey & Amanda Illingworth were the pair for the 3rd team with both also having their first relay experience. They had a brilliant run, finishing as 6th fastest ladies and just ahead of our Bingley Mens B team meaning all 3 ladies legs were ahead of the chaps. Brilliant running ladies!

For Leg 4 we had Ruth Thackray & Angela Curtis setting off to keep the 1st team ahead, with Ruth only confirmed to do that leg the day before. They had a brilliant run, faster than the mens A team and extending the lead to around an hour after Baildon had a much slower pair. At this point, the win was ours unless we had any disasters on Leg 5. Jo Henry & Sue Cordingley also had a very strong run for the 2nd team coming in just 15 seconds slower than Keighley as 3rd fastest ladies pair and bringing our 2nd team to 3rd place, just 12 seconds behind Baildon Runners after their slower leg. Anna Bedford & Jenny Elkiss also had a great run for the 3rd team with both experiencing their first relay for the club and Jenny recovered from injury, ensuring that our ladies team stayed ahead of the Saltaire Striders team.

For the final leg, the 1st team just needed to make sure that Jo Buckley & Sarah Flaherty got around at a great pace and safely to confirm the win. Jo only switched to that leg the day before so the pressure was on for the navigation but both ran brilliantly and were 10 mins faster than Horsforth as the next fastest ladies pair, extending the teams lead to well over an hour over the team in 2nd place. Brilliantly though by this point, the team in 2nd place was our own ladies B team! Becky Weight & Jenni Boocock had a fantastic run as the 5th fastest ladies pair but with a slower Baildon pairing, the final results show the 2nd placed finish for the team. A brilliant result for Jenni in particular in her return to relays for the club with both Jenni & Becky pushed to their limits by the full distance. As expected, Alison Marks & Kate Farley also had a fab run for the 3rd team, finishing ahead of Saltaire Striders and only 30 seconds behind Baildon, bringing the team home in 7th place. Huge thanks to Kate who truly saved the day by switching to this leg the day before and compromising her personal plans to make sure the team could all take part as we ran out of options to make it work otherwise. Thanks Kate – we all owe you one!

Final results were as below, with the B team proving that every second counts on every leg with less than 2 minutes separating 2nd, 3rd and 4th! Huge congratulations to the A team for confirming our 3rd win in a row, the B team for an incredible 2nd place and the C team for proving our strength as a group of ladies in the local area with a really strong final time and 7th position. We are all rightly proud of the performances of all 3 teams and just showing how incredible our ladies are – even with 2 of the A team dropping out on the day before. Well done ladies!

1 Bingley Harriers Ladies A Ladies 6:57:01
2 Bingley Harriers Ladies B Ladies 8:12:02
3 Horsforth Harriers Ladies Ladies 8:13:07
4 Keighley & Craven AC Ladies 8:13:48
5 Baildon Runners Ladies Ladies 8:23:10
6 Blackburn Road Runners Ladies Ladies 9:14:11
7 Bingley Harriers Ladies C Ladies 9:59:15
8 Saltaire Striders Ladies Ladies 10:32:54

Nicola Jones had the unenviable task of managing the three Ladies teams which she did superbly, with good grace and great efficiency. Thanks to Nicola from everyone who ran, or would have, had legs and lives allowed.
Photos in the Header were taken by Caren Crabtree, Woodentops, Donna Edmondson, Ruth Thackray and Becky Weight.

We had two Men’s teams running too. Happy to post a report if someone pulls one together.
Full results available on https://saltairestriders.org.uk/bmwr-results-%26-records