Packing the goody bags on Saturday morning served to remind me of the scale of the occasion. T-shirt, Mars bar, leaflet, bag… Ten bags per sack… Lorry full of sacks. I realised that for once I was feeling quite apprehensive about a race.
On the start line it seemed like the crowd of runners stretched back all the way to the rugby club. Then suddenly no more time to look around as we sprinted forward and the crowd surged behind. After struggling to pace myself in the wind at Four Villages my plan was to make sure that I stuck with a group especially on the way back. I set off at what seemed like a fast pace but the leaders were already out of sight as I turned off the main road. Up ahead Mike Halman was also beginning to pull away.
Passing through 2 miles in 10:38 I realised that this was a bit fast but the wind was clearly behind us and it seemed best to press on to make the most of the good conditions. By 3 miles a group had formed around me and as I glanced over each shoulder I saw a “who’s who” of guys who usually finish 2-3 minutes in front of me. Again I had the feeling that I’d gone off to fast but here was my group and I had to stick with it.
My family were waving away at 4 miles. Waving back I lost a couple of places and remembered that I still needed to be smiling when I passed their water station at 10.5 miles. The 5-mile mark flashed by in 27:03 – which would be a PB by 20s – but the pace still seemed manageable. I pushed along at the front of the group and for a while the miles just seemed to tick by.
Turning back up Mobberley high street the miles began to tell. I noticed the wind and slight incline struggling to keep up. Chris Heys from Sale and I urged each other on and we regained the group at the top of the hill. Our effort also gained us another PB split of under 56 minutes at 10 miles. I was still grinning as we passed the water station with my daughters jumping up and down with the excitement of it all. The wind was really head-on up Barleyhurst Lane and I gratefully tucked in. Passing the golf club sign I should probably have tried to break away but with the headwind it was just to tempting to stay in the pack.
We were still together coming out of the infamous dip: less than five minutes to go! As we passed the crowd at Morley I could hear the finish. It was a last chance to make a move. Following Tony’s guidelines I dropped my shoulders and attempted to stride out. 2m, 5m, 10m clear I was definitely breaking away. I glanced back, nobody was following so I tried to relax and press on. Surely I wasn’t going to outsprint these faster, younger guys? Er, no … just before the final turn the whole troop came storming past me and I could only watch the final tussle for the last of the top 20 places ahead of me.
Still, I was delighted to see the clock showing a PB and only my 2nd time under 75 minutes (the first having been recorded in the much warmer and easier conditions of Benidorm 2005).
Mike Halman was waiting at the end of the funnel and I must have been the first of many to hear that he’d missed his sub-70 minute target by just a handful of seconds. Nevertheless it was a great PB in the windy conditions. Mike’s race highlights included PB splits at 5 and 10 miles … and a quick chunder around half way.
Stuart sprinted Mike Shaw of Stockport all the way into the funnel and was rewarded with yet another PB. Tom, strong as ever completed the 4-man team, despite still carrying the aches, cuts, bruises (and frostbite?) from his 22 mile “taper run” at Edale the previous Sunday. Jim was aiming for a steady pace to balance Marathon training and some injury niggles but perhaps urged on by Tom still cruised in close to his PB. Andy Penney also put his marathon mileage to good use to complete what was almost a clean sweep of group 1 PBs.
Rob Downs