Every so often you read something in a running publication, or on a website, that makes you sit up and take notice.
The below paragraph is a straight lift from the race website;
'Martin McLoughlin(29.25) and Ann Williams(33.25) hold the race records which are unlikely to be beaten on Sunday as the runner profile has changed so much over the years. The quality at the sharp end of the race was so impressive in the early years. For example, in 1991 29 runners broke 32 minutes with 51 runners home under 33 minutes. Indeed, last year’s winner would not have made the top 50 in 1991!'
Some of the newer members of the club will have heard the older members sounding like characters from a Hovis advert when they say that standards aren't what they used to be, but even I was surprised to find that Damian's winning time from last year wouldn't have put him in the top 50 in 1991! I only competed in this race because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to complete 7 races in the summer series having missed so many due to injury. When I was given number 666 I began to wonder whether I had made the right decision. However after a congested start the race soon settled down. 1 small lap, 2 large laps of a virtually pancake flat course. The only things to slow runners down were that the course had a lot of bends and there was a short section on grass. Incidentally I'm always puzzled why road runners slow down so much when they encounter a bit of grass. Each lap on the approach to the grass section I was struggling to stay in contact with someone due to my wonky leg and then once we got on the grass they slowed down and I breezed past them.
Each lap the commentator made a point of mentioning 'Here comes runner 666' making one feel rather self conscious as though everyone expected some devil with horns to be approaching. Final lap was a bit congested due to t he number of lapped runners and the amount of dodging and weaving. I eventually managed to hold onto 3rd place, two minutes slower than the 2nd placed runner, but such was the queue of runners just behind me that had I been 12 seconds slower I would only have been 7th!
The only fault in the race organisation was the long delay in the prizegiving. (Why do some races manage to present the prizes promptly and others take ages!). Having waited about an hour (despite the commentator constantly telling us throughout the long wait that the prizegiving would be held shortly!) it seemed to take for ever and even then they only presented the first three prizes and said they would present the other prizes (including Kate's prize a further half an hour later!). Apart from that though a really enjoyable race, well organised and I would certainly race it again.
Malcolm