A baking hot Monday and Tuesday gave way to a humid warm Wednesday with the threat of a downpour, or worse, thunder and lightning! What we got in fact was Manchester rain! The type that you question whether or not it is actually falling or is just there.
We had 40 plus pre-entrants, all keen to retain the trophy for a third consecutive year. But, holidays, injuries, hot dates, lethargy, CBA, or maybe even the weather, reduced us to just 20 on the start-line. Macclesfield on the other hand had come mob-handed and outnumbered us two to one.
I soon realised that we had no real chance of retaining the trophy. The day before, I noticed the rules had changed, with two FV50s to count. Last year we had no FV50 listed in the results against almost double figures for Macclesfield – they had seemingly done their homework. I did suggest Nicky run the race twice, which to me seemed an obvious solution, but she declined.
The race had a sting in tail this year with the introduction of a new finish away from the Leather Smithy. On dropping down to Ridgegate Reservoir a sharp right turn took us back up through the forest and an uphill finish at the Visitor Centre. The extra distance now makes the race nearer 5.6 miles.
We all ran valiantly. Damian was first with Barry close behind in second, as last year – Damian winning the new trophy. Alan Mc. finished 6th. Our first three ladies were, Katy 29th, Louisa 37th, and Nicky 71st. This meant that Nicky would be classed as one of our first three, so we had no FV50 finishers to score. How could we win? Another great run from Paul Norris winning the MV60 category, and good to see Jon Bale competing again.
Apparently, Paul was handed the trophy afterwards. So, the million dollar question which hopefully Paul can answer, how on earth did we retain the trophy?
Chris / Don
Post Script – Paul doesn’t know, so let’s just accept it. Well done all those that ran.