The Stafford 20 seemed a good tester for London – an established race, well organised, a challenging distance, and about the right timing with 7 weeks still to hone the performance before the marathon proper. All this turned out to be true, but the race had a few other features which made it memorable but not too enjoyable. The race started out of Stafford University, up the main road hill leading to the Staffordshire show-ground, which was solid with traffic waiting to turn left across the route of the race. And did I mention, it was up hill! The weather started off as sunny and cold, but the wind got up, rain started, and progressed to horizontal hail, with a particularly heavy squall just as the race turned a corner on the 3-lap course taking us directly into a head-wind. The Watts philosophy of over-dressing paid off handsomely – I would not have wanted to be clad in only shorts and singlet in those conditions. Plus three laps in very uninspiring surroundings became a little repetitive. On the bright side the goody bag was excellent, and we'd practically warmed after the drive back to Wilmslow with the heater full on. Next year maybe I'll go back to Grindleford!
Pictures courtesey of Bryan Dale's excellent site. The three of us did reasonable times despite the weather:-
1st individual runner (there were also relay teams) was David Stevens in 1:54:59
68 Mark Bale 2:19:52
103 Andy Watts 2:27:19
131 Steve Russell 2:31:23
368 finishers
Steve looks like he is walking!