Green Drive 5, Sunday 20th October
A well-organized race with plenty of marshals. It’s a totally flat course mainly around
country lanes starting and finishing on Green Drive, a tree-lined path leading
to the main road which strangely seemed
to have been extended on the way back!
Some people had saved themselves for the SS
and others made of sterner stuff had done ‘the double’, having run round Heaton
Park yesterday.
There was the usual frantic start
with Richard, Paul, Janine, Katy and new comer Steve ripping up the leaves on
the outward leg down "The Drive" whilst Jon took time to warm up the
legs. Exiting onto the main road and into the headwind and rain the race
settled and Janine effortlessly glided through the gears reeling in the early
pace setter Steve, closely followed by Paul, maintaining those positions to the
end, Janine less then ten seconds behind Mick.
Steve in his debut race bravely held onto his early lead only to
ultimately relinquish as his stamina faded. Struggling to maintain some
notion of style the return up "The Drive" took forever but with the
finish approaching Richard sprinted and piped Jon in the final grasp for the
funnel closely followed by Katy and Steve.
Patrick and Chris overtook Nicky early on
and were neck and neck all the way round until Patrick tired in his first race
since spraining his ankle in the ‘danger zone’ three weeks ago.
The top WRC men were rather thin on the
ground but the top ladies ran away with a large trophy, Di taking the lead and coming in first lady,
yet again! The counters for the team prize were Di, Sharon, Janine and Katy
Green. Sharon was 4th lady,
Janine won 1st LV40, Mick 1st
M65 and Pete 1st M70. The
ageing population in Lancashire are
obviously fit as there were prizes for MV75 and LV70! The prize giving was rather drawn out with
prizes for Lancashire alongside the main prizes. I had my moment of glory when given a medal
for being a Lancashire champion which I duly returned! All in all a good race but rather a long way
to get our smart technical t-shirt.
Nicky