Birchwood Brook 5K – 31st May 2018

Report from the field – Simon says….

Birchwood Brook 5K – 31st May 2018.

North Cheshire 5K Grand Prix – Race No. 2.

Spectrum Striders introduced this race a few years ago to replace the Lymm 5K when Health and Safety and probably the Police had got on their case. For a small club they produce a good number of races but runners safety was never high on their agenda. The Lymm race was run on country lanes with the exception of a mile on a trunk road with no pavement where the competitors played Rollerball with articulated lorries and Transit vans. At that time they were also organising the now defunct Burtonwood 5 miler – which was in our 2013 summer series – and comprised two laps of pavement free unclosed road. I recall abusive drivers jumping out of cars, horns blaring and nearly being taken out by a double decker bus as I “sprinted” to the finish – it was carnage. I assume this instigated the changes to their Birchwood 10K and Hollins Green 5K courses around that time.

Birchwood Brook however barely touches a road, being run on paths through various parks  and finishing on a narrow footpath in a wood, so providing a picturesque flat course. Andrew Whittingham was warming up with Damian, and they were soon joined by the Jackson’s Two, Rob and Nick. Obviously the guys were planning an assault on the team prize and to that end it would prove mission accomplished. Damian’s run was pretty impressive off the back of the only training he has been doing for the last few months has been at the pre-natal clinic. I was the only other Wilmslow runner and pleased to note Dave Tomkins had not turned up as that opened up the V70 prize. Andy spent the last 15 minutes leading up to the start deriding anything that looked remotely like 70, reserving particular abuse to one old lad from St Helens whose vest looked about the same age. The claxon sounded and the St Helens guy shot off like an Exocet missile. There was a chap from Southport and Waterloo who looked of a particular age and I managed to overhaul him at 4K which meant maintaining the same pace and there was a chance of at least second place. Unfortunately me and narrow woodland paths don’t mix and 50 metres from the finish he came flying past – the only satisfaction was seeing him immediately throw up. It turns out the St Helens guy was old before his time so Southport won it. As you will see below Damian, Andrew, Rob and Nick ran really well to take the team prize and Nick won V50.

1^st       16.21  Matthew Shaw Salford Harriers

3^rd      16.49  Damian Nicholls

10^th    17.48  Andrew Whittingham  2^nd V40

16^th    18.44  Robert Jackson

17^th    18.55  Kerry Marchant  Newcastle A C

20^th    19.14  Nick Jackson  1^st V50

116^th  26.38 Simon Fenton 2^nd V70

162 Finished

Wilmslow Running Club mens team first of 15.