It was my 3^rd Dam Flask relay (aside from a couple too long ago for me to recall dates). My last one was in 2024 and many of us will recall that the skies opened as we were arriving so there was a mad warm-up dash to the cricket hut for shelter. This year the weather was kind, no rain and the heatwave hadn’t yet arrived. 
The turnout was great as will be seen from the group photo. If my view of the results is correct there were 51 of us. That takes some organisation (groups of 3 and 4, gender and age co-ordinated). Tom Hughes, Nadia Raza & Chris Heggs did a great job helping everything to run smoothly. 
This and other relay events have such a great friendly, but at the same time competitive, feel. Definitely a club event with distinguishing team vest colours helpfully giving a big nudge to get in line and ready for a smooth transition. There didn’t seem to be any dropped batons (I luckily remembered my Yvonne Twelvetree ‘Pass the baton’ speed course a few years ago) and Jacob arriving late with rucksack and fell shoes responded quickly to a rapid relay tutorial from team-mate Mark
There were quite a few Totley members this year who had never run a relay or Dam Flask before (Lucy K, Claire M, Gillian B to name just a few). 

For a relay, the route is pretty tough despite (or rather because of) it’s beautiful setting. The aspects that stand out to me include the following:

• You may be running for most of the time fairly much alone. Other competitors may be reasonably far ahead or behind and this may feel much harder (for most) or easier for some. I really appreciated being overtaken but cheered on by a Totley male (thanks but too tired to check who it was).
• Positioning on road. Are you a road or a path runner? Or both? Are you thinking mostly about minimising distance or is it road camber adjustment? Falling into kerb edges or feeling twinges due to uneven surfaces may have rightly been prominent in most of our minds.
• Hill- yes it’s still there and quite sneaky. Ruth positioned herself with camera really well here to capture many moments of grimace, sneaky walking, moments of quiet contemplation (or prayer). See photos for examples.
• Transition – already mentioned above. Start and transition techniques were brilliant and the photo of Kevin and Colin demonstrate this well. No, Colin has not stepped on Kevin’s foot, Their individual & group times were excellent (Kevin, Colin, Steve & Paul)

In terms of results, It is hard to cover every team and individual performance. The finish times were really fast and very close. One thing that stood out to me was how close the times were of Totley runners within each team. Credit to Tom Hughes for putting the teams together and accordingly adjusting (I got closer to my metabolic age for once). 

🥇🥉🥳 Congratulation to Laura, Vicky & Jen for winning 3^rd position in V35 and Kevin, Colin, Steve & Paul for winning 1st V50.🥇🥉🎉