Club Series, race 18
Sunday August 26th.
At the end of a long, hot, dry, glorious summer it was appropriate to have some proper weather for the Bank Holiday weekend; cold, wet and windy. Well, to be fair, breezy would be more accurate and, in truth, most of us prefer to run in cool drizzle than heat and humidity.
It seems a necessity that, having warmed-up, you stand in the cold and rain whilst a local dignitary gives a speech, I’ve never been entirely sure exactly who benefits from this, today was definitely a day when you wanted to get going.
Bollington is a good course, I always prefer one lap, but it contains a lot more uphill than downhill. Some might argue that since it starts and finishes in the same place this is impossible, but do the maths. The first 4k is mainly uphill, then there is 1k downhill, 4k flat along the canal and then a 1k uphill finish.
We had a good Wilmslow turnout and quality as well as quantity. Jon was 2nd. overall and first M35. Peter was 3rd. and first M40. Diane won the ladies race and made the top ten overall. Kate, for the second time this month, won F50. Lots of category prizes given out whilst most of our winners were on a Cool Down run. Hopefully we’ll reunite the winners with their envelopes on Tuesday.
Sharon was 3rd. lady, 2nd F40 to Di and 19th.overall. Ian was 2nd. M70.
James finished 14th. and 3rd. M40, Paul Norris was 3rd. M60, Simon was 3rd.M70.
Sally was third Wilmslow lady behind Diane and Sharon, then came Kate, Nicola, Catherine, Catriona and Sue.
Other League One runners; Allan, on James’s tail, 15th., Richard 18th., Graham 20th., Jarrod 25th. 8 Wilmslow runners in the first 20, 9 in the first 25 and 10 in the first 30.
Paul Garnett’s days in League Two are numbered, he won again. Ian Smallwood, having cycled there, was second followed by Sally, Oliver and Mark.
Patrick took a valuable win in League Three to keep the pressure on Colin at the top. Kate was second, Nicola third and Cat fourth.
Catherine’s battles are with the League three runners. There was not much at halfway between Sue, Ian and Simon, all looking for second place in League Four. Last year Simon ran away from Ian on the Middlewood Way, Sue, with her best run of the year, did the same today but Simon slipped-back, his nerve problem has taken the edge off his running.
Roy and Mike braved the rain to give support.
We have our forum as the first step towards the 2019 Race Series after training on Sept. 11th., (and, somewhat belatedly you may feel, mugs and shirts from 2017) I’ll be disappointed if Bollington does not make it into next year’s Series.
Interestingly. With sore quads and hip-flexor I ran this 100 seconds quicker than last year. And 15 seconds quicker than the flat Birchwood 10k last week!! How does that work with more hills up than down 🙂 ! Must see what next year does.