25th Sept 2005
Guilden Sutton was the venue for the penultimate Summer Series fixture. There is still the Langley 7 to come but for many of us this was the last real chance to gain some pain-free points – as I’ve been saying all season the only thing you want to be deciding on Langley hill is what sort of cake you’re having afterwards in the church hall.
Anyone standing on the first corner might have thought that they were witnessing the Sutton 100 Yard Dash such was the initial stampede. The Wilmslow runners were well out sprinted to the turn by a speedy local but as he stopped to breathe normal service was resumed and Mike Halman eased into the lead.
The field spread out as we raced round the first loop and back through the village. The first 5km went past in 16.40 – this seemed rather quick although later described by Tom (I was acting as his wind break) as a bit pedestrian. The longer second loop took us out to the A51. This main road section hadn’t looked great on the map but in fact was along a smooth pavement down a gentle incline. This long downhill stretch was ideally planned at 6 to 8km just the point where you welcome any assistance.
I’d heard rumours that there was a steep hill at the end and as we continued to chase down the A51 I began to think that we were building up some serious altitude debt. But Tom was still right there on my shoulder so there was no slowing down and the final hill would just have to look after itself. In the event it was a relatively easy climb back up to into the village and after a dash around the houses we were finishing by the village hall.
The well planned and marshalled course, fine weather and fast field produced some excellent positions and times for team Wilmslow. There was yet another win for Mike H and many runners challenged PBs and SBs. Kate Ayres fine 39.06 presumably beats her own CR and may filter down to V40. Tom McGaff helped himself to another of Tony’s V50 records by over 15s – there may be more to come if he can get his pacemaker to run a bit faster into a headwind on the first 5km. Tony himself confessed to shamelessly “dipping” at the line to sneak a point from Ray and there were other good-natured Wilmslow sprinters further down the field gunning for a coveted visible position on the mug. With 5 of the top 10 finishers the men dominated the team prize.
This was also the final race in the Cheshire GP. The team positions had been decided back at Birchwood (Wilmslow Men 1st, Ladies 2nd). Individually it appears that Wilmslow men have taken the top 4 places with Mike H, Tom, Stuart, Rob in that order.
Rob
1 Michael HALMAN Senior Men 32:35
4 Rob DOWNS Male Vet 40 34:05
5 Tom MCGAFF Male Vet 50 34:18
7 Stuart PARROTT Male Vet 40 34:27
10 Jim PENDRILL Senior Men 35:04
23 Jeffrey CAPER Senior Men 36:50
32 Tony HULME Male Vet 55 37:31
33 Ray NOBLE Senior Men 37:31
49 Richard PARRIS Senior Men 38:36
54 Michael COOPER Male Vet 40 38:49
63 Kate AYRES Lady Vet 45 39:06
68 Jane CLARKE Lady Vet 35 39:25
88 Stephen COLLINS Male Vet 45 40:49
92 Trevor MORRIS Male Vet 40 41:02
94 Andrew WATTS Male Vet 55 41:09
107 Steve RUSSELL Male Vet 45 41:55
108 Paul AYRES Male Vet 45 41:59
144 Bill STANIARD Male Vet 40 44:39
154 Sean BARRY Senior Men 45:06
162 Rod COOMBS Male Vet 50 45:23
170 Ian ASHCROFT Male Vet 55 45:54
207 Julie LUCAS Lady Vet 40 47:59
215 Sally MADDOCK Senior Ladies 48:33
217 Stephen FEBER Male Vet 50 48:42
325 finishers
Full results at http://www.ukresults.net/2005/sutton6.html