24th Four Villages Half Marathon – 23rd January 2005
(Rob finished the Four Villages 40th overall in 1:18:18 on the big clock – between Graham and Jim. Unfortunately they didn’t have a chip for his race number at the start so he was given a new chip and race number 1256.)
It was a chilly start scraping the ice off the car but by the time we approached Helsby the sunny, crisp conditions were looking ideal for a Sunday morning run in the country. The first hurdle was to get past the bacon butty stall cunningly positioned next to registration. We were up to the challenge and instead joined Tom and Mike’s traditional slightly-too-long, slightly-too-fast warm up run before lining up at the start.
There was a rather chaotic start as we all shuffled through the gate with one or two cross country elbows flying as we veered sharp right onto the main road and got into our stride.
The Four Villages course follows a rough star shape heading out to points at the villages and returning back towards Helsby before setting off again. Fortunately there were plenty of marshals pointing the way. Mike Halman apparently arrived at the first fork before the marshals – not a problem for the rest of us.
The air was pleasantly cooling as we raced down the country lanes. The low winter sun was dazzling but hadn’t quite melted the black ice in the shadows of the high hedges. My only plan was to keep Jim, Graham and Stuart in sight for as long as possible and the first few miles went past at a cracking 5.30 – 5.50 mile pace. So far so good but I’d not done this for more than a few miles before. Would the Tuesday night reps deliver the stamina for 13 miles? As I juggled with a cup of water at the 5 mile mark Graham and Stuart pulled away and Jim caught up. A couple of miles later I heard a ping and saw Jim take a dive down to the left. Grinning, Jim re-appeared clutching his “chip” that had flown off his shoe.
By mile 8 the pace had dipped slightly as we stretched out and the road started to undulate and I passed the 10 mile clock at almost exactly 1 hour. The route was now more obvious; on the road ahead I could see runners moving up and past a line of trees on the hill ahead. As we climbed the view opened up to reveal the Frodsham area and snow on the Welsh mountains. On the other side of the M56 Runcorn smouldered unhealthily in the crisp sunshine. All this climbing and admiring the view had reduced the pace but cresting the hill at 11 miles Jim and I were finally making inroads on Stuart and Graham’s lead.
I was looking forward to the long run in down Towers Lane but in the event it just brought on a stitch and sore toes as Graham and Stuart skipped away again. I felt better as the road levelled off at 12 miles and managed to catch up some time on the run into Helsby. Mike Halman (looking relaxed after spending only 71 minutes out on the course) was there to cheer us into the last 200m and as we raced down the cul-de-sac finish the order was Stuart, Graham, Rob, Jim all within 30s of 78 minutes.
By the time I’d unravelled my chip from my laces another stream of Wilmslow vests had entered the funnel around 1:25 à 1:30 – some great performances and PB (well at least SB) smiles all round. I remember Mike Cooper and Kate Ayres particularly both grinning from ear to ear at respectively meeting and beating the 1:30 mark.
We were well represented at the award ceremony with Mike Halman an amazing 5th overall and Sally Gilliver, Jane Clark, Kate Ayres and Tom McGaff all winning veteran categories. We also picked up both team prizes to round off a great day out for the club.
Rob