WRC series race #17 – Rudyard Lake 27 July 2023

The last of the Staffordshire Moorlands races took place on Thursday night.

I missed the turning and ended up in the Station car park. A blessing in the end as the bridge I should have gone under was blocked when I left!

Twenty-three Club runners were out. Sue and Nic were there supporting. Photo opportunity nearly turned into a nightmare of herding cats together.

Tony our ex-coach was there. Taking it easy as he’d qualified for second overall in his category for the series. Got some advice about the course which led me to believe I had the wrong shoes on. And also the return through the woods was likely to be muddy and to watch out for the roots! ☹

The rain held off. The director and sponsor could hardly be heard. And we were off!

Noticed Janet and Catherine were  further ahead of me in the start bunch. So they could be targets if I ran well. A long straight run with puddles took us up one se of the lake. Choosing to pace myself and save something for the end, I slowly overtook Catherine after about 1k.  At the end of the straight we turned left to run around the end of the lake and the began a slow climb. I had noticed Janet about 35 seconds ahead on the turn. The narrow road was leading across and up to the sound of bagpipes. Before that there was the oncoming car to contend with at the same time as two young yobbos on scramble bikes were behind me overtaking runners causing me to step off the road. Keeping up with groups of runners and finding interesting snippets of info: You can take your family on the little train for 17.95; Author of Jungle Book was named after the lake amongst other things. Thanking the bag pipe player I took to the woods with anticipation of reducing Janet’s lead. It was 45 seconds at the Bagpipes.

No water at the end. So off to bar. A queue! 🙁 Need to get off and home by 9:30. No time to socialise. The faster runners are left to queue and socialise before it gets dark. Did overhear someone saying that the shortness was that normally at the end of the first long straight, the race would continue on a small out and back loop before going across the end of the lake. They didn’t have enough marshals to accommodate it.

It felt racy as I skipped down through the trees. The it got a little gloomy and I almost paid for trying to step onto a big root to launch myself over some mud. I nearly went. The ankle held and didn’t turn. Thank god! Oh Well I’ll wait for some road! The most frustrating thing Is catching up with a runner who is walking and overtaking them, only for them to charge past just before we exit off the road and onto a path. They begin to walk again after a few seconds. Curses. Another wait now. At  6k I feel that I can push on a little. I can sense that we are closing on the dam. But looking at my watch we still have a bit to go. There must be a loop near the hotel. Turn down a sloping path. There’s the finish!! We’v’e just done over 4 miles. Dam!!

Some great performances. Nic first lady, Rebecca third lady. James our first finisher. Category firsts for: Barry, Graham,Tom, Andy and Trevor. Cat 2’s for: Richard, Louisa and Tracy.

Wilmslow Runners results below:

Pos	Runner	Club	Time	Cat	CatPos
1	Simon Myatt		24:19	MSnr	1
11	James Speedie	WRC	25:39	M40	5
14	Barry Archbold	WRC	25:46	M50	1
20	Mark Kirkby	WRC	27:21	M40	8
26	Nicola Reece	WRC	28:17	F40	1
30	Graham Screawn	WRC	28:26	M55	1
34	Matthew Taylor	WRC	28:42	M45	4
36	Richard Harrison	WRC	28:49	M50	2
38	Markus Dalgaard	WRC	28:54	MSnr	38
45	Rebecca Jackson	WRC	29:22	FSnr	3
60	Louisa Harrison	WRC	31:13	F45	2
63	Stephen Greaves	WRC	31:24	M50	8
66	Garry Morrison	WRC	31:31	M55	7
71	Diane Bygrave	WRC	31:35	F45	4
72	Tom McGaff	WRC	31:38	M65	1
80	Andy Watts	WRC	32:28	M70	1
98	Tracy Bown	WRC	33:47	F55	2
105	Amanda Bradbury	WRC	34:19	F45	7
113	Colin Walton	WRC	34:50	M60	5
176	Janet Screawn	WRC	39:26	F55	4
182	Sue Strang	WRC	39:56	F55	6
194	Patrick Grannan	WRC	41:08	M70	5
218	Catherine Machin	WRC	44:57	F40	20
236	Trevor Faulkner	WRC	58:54	M80	1