Macclesfield is billed as a hilly course but the compensation is a series of long downhill stretches that seem to be in just the places where your mile pace might start to waver. Looking at the rather scary gradient profile I decided on a positive approach: don’t look at the watch, storm down the hills, survive the ups, enjoy the scenery.
Lining up on the track Tony sauntered over “there’s not much competition you might even do alright”. Yeah thanks Tony but then Mike Proudlove appeared and then Andy Norman and then Scott Winton and then a rather relaxed looking Ethopian athlete… Nevertheless a plan is a plan and I set off down the first hill at top speed surprisingly not too far behind the elite guys. At about a mile the first five kicked and they just disappeared … incredible, I realised then that the first mile was probably my fastest and their slowest of the race.
By the time I was cresting the first real hill out of Prestbury I was losing sight of the next runners both ahead and behind and ran the rest of the race completely alone. I managed to keep on plan convincing myself that the uphill was nothing compared Bowstones in the rain.
Paul (fit from cycling the length of Spain) and Roy were very welcome supporters at about 6 miles then again about 11.5 miles near the top of the last hill. “You’re first old guy by miles” shouted Paul. “Well, the first really old looking guy” added Roy. With this endorsement from the president ringing in my ears I surged up the final hill and back down towards the finish.
There were some great times from the Wilmslow runners and nearly everyone seemed to get a PB or pretty close. Perhaps we all benefited from speeding up over the 10K season and the distractions of the scenic course.
Rob
8th (2nd M40) Rob Downs 1:15:53
30th Andrew Penney 1:23:49
42nd (2nd M55) M Tony Hulme 1:26:34
54th (11th M40) Mike Cooper 1:27:34
58th (1st L45 5th L) Kate Ayres 1:27:34
77th (3rd M55) Andrew Watts 1:29:45
84th (17th M40) Trevor Morris 1:30:32
100th (9th M45) Paul Ayres 1:32:10
154th (2nd L45 13th L) Nicky Mowat 1:35:39
186th Sean Barry 1:37:57
227th M Gareth Trimble 1:40:25
230th 24th L Angela B-Smith 1:40:25
336th (43rd L) Amanda Bradbury 1:46:58
342nd (7th M60) Simon Fenton 1:47:31
423rd (10th M60) Trevor Faulkner 1:52:33
670 finishers
Full results at: http://www.joelee.co.uk/cgi-local/raceresults.cgi?event=../2005/macc/macchalf05.html
Winning times (all 4 broke course record)
1st Neo Molema 1:06:32
2nd Andy Norman Altrchm 1:06:34
3rd Scott Winton Salford 1:08:37
4th Julian Moorhouse Birchfld 1:08:49
See photos in continuation …
Tony holds off Andy in the v55 category to win the running bear vouchers …
… but that smile could have cost him 0.5s
All alone.
Trevor enjoying the big hill.
Loads more photos at the excellent http://racephotos.topcities.com/macclesfield_2.htm
Last year’s Macc Half was my first race, after which I decided to join WRC. My first impressions on a cold Tuesday night in November were of hard training (I could only manage two 650’s) and amazing bond of enthusiasm for the sport and club. Since then my Macc time has come down 12 minutes and I’ve had a lot of fun running with the club – thanks to Tony and everyone else for the friendly advice and encouragement.
Rob