30th July 2005
The Burtonwood 5 was listed in the July newsletter but attracted only a minimal Wilmslow support – well in fact just me – but I’ll write it up so that you know what you missed.
It was a flat rural course, HQ’d at a pub and all runners got a free burger – so on paper that is 3 "Bishop Stars" already. Unfortunately in practice it didn’t live up to the billing.
The main selling point of this race for me was the accompanying 2k all ages fun run that allowed the activity to be re-categorised on the Downs calendar from "Dad’s running again" to "healthy fun for the children". So while my daughters limbered up for the 2k main event, I joined in the 5 mile curtain raiser. It was a small field of certainly less than 100 runners but I noticed some of the usual suspects from local rival clubs. By the time Nick Jones from Salford started to warm up I could see that it wasn’t going to be the easiest way to earn a burger.
The course was a sort of flat but completely uninspiring loop mainly following a busy main road. At one point I even had to give way to an oncoming bus. The two laps had at least slight variations and I got to wave to everyone as we passed the pub. I was pleased to pick up a couple of places on the second lap to finish 3rd at least 2 minutes behind the leader but only a few seconds behind a PB. The pub was rather scruffy with a prominent no children sign – so I’m unlikely to be back to defend my bronze next year.
3 Rob Downs 27.30
Downs team photo below
