Obscure race, long way from home, early start, multi-terrain, Tony voicing fears about organisation. Anyone who has lived through more than one Summer Series would have recognised the omens for a classic high turn out race.
We’d overtaken him a couple of times and taken a cunning short cut through Lower Peover but it was no surprise that superior navigation put Trevor ahead of us in the queue for registration. There was the usual Summer Series banter as more and more Wilmslow runners turned up, whittling away the points on offer.
With a cheery “well off you go then” the awfully nice NSPCC lady waved us away across the first field. From the map and a quick recce the last few km looked like a mess of fields and stile-hopping. I didn’t fancy my chances against Stuart and Tom on that terrain so I was hoping that I could tuck in behind Damien for a while to build up an advantage and avoid any close combat later on. Damien had his own plan however and I ended up in front pushing the pace along the road for the first 2k.
As we left the road Damien relieved me of the lead and we hit the trails. This began as a really pleasant run up through the woods in dappled sunshine. Beeston Castle appeared above the trees providing picture postcard views. It wasn’t steep even compared to Alderley Edge. However the combination of pace and incline took it out of my legs and pretty soon I could hear Stuart’s gasping advance. He caught me at what seemed like the top and I immediately skipped back in front as we crested the hill, thinking I could recover and stretch out down the hill. Unfortunately the next sign was up again, and this time I was no match for Stuart as he powered on upwards.
Finally heading down again I tried to pick up the pace but if anything Stuart was still moving away, even gaining on Damien. The last third of the course was a tour of farmers’ fields and tested our techniques for running variously planted and ploughed terrain. I could still see Stuart and Damien up ahead although we were now spread out enough to each have our own field.
I lost sight of Stuart as I was directed into a field of chest high oil seed rape. The bright yellow pollen was over powering. I discovered that covering my eyes and holding my breath was not compatible with good running form. My eyes were still streaming as I passed the next marshal who thought I was crying “Oh are you all right dear, well keep going, nearly there now …”.
Tom ran in after me having also enjoyed whole fields to himself in the latter section. Steve Dempsey and Mark Bale both finished well up the field perhaps using strength hard earned in the winter cross-country campaign. Jane and Kate completed a clean sweep of the positions for Wilmslow.
In the midst of the sea of Wilmslow vests packing most of the first 20 places Tony was heard to grumble “8th overall, 6th Wilmslow”. Ah well, it was all in a good cause.
Rob Downs