This was the 4th year in a row that I’ve toed the line at Helsby. It works like this. After an autumn of swift 10ks and the odd half you suddenly find that there are no road races in November or December. But you’re on a roll and signing up for a January Half appears essential to feed your road race habit. Come January it’s wet and freezing, you’ve been destroyed by cross country, spent Christmas with a cold / injury and Four Villages no longer seems such a smart idea. Well that’s the theory but in practice I turn up anyway.
As we charged off down the main road I found myself running next to Andrew McNeil who I recognised as the first V40 at Wilmslow 2007. I thought that I’d try to stay with him for a while and see how it felt. At 2 miles it already felt like 650 reps without the recoveries and I backed off a bit. At this point Tomas Abyu was not that far in front at the head of a group pursuing Mark Miles who had raced into a large lead.
By 3 miles I was running more comfortably in a small group that included more familiar rivals Chris Heyes of Sale and Graham Houghton from Spectrum. Working together we maintained a good pace along the flat country lanes. The rain had stopped and it was rather warm and breezy. It seemed hard going as we slogged up the first inclines around 8 miles. I really needed a drink at 9 miles and fell off the back of the group. But I kept them in sight as I passed a couple of the early leaders who had completely blown up. Mick Hall was there to photograph our pain at the 10 mile marker but I felt confident now that I could handle the remaining hills and maintain my position.
Accelerating down Towers Lane I could see the group slowly coming back to me. I drew level with a Liverpool runner as we passed the golf course and just held him off in the sprint finish.
I was pleased with my time of 1:15 but there were plenty of good vets ahead of me with the first 3 V40s running 1:12. Jim and Tom soon followed me in and we headed back to the club house for a well deserved custard cream or two.
With a few absences and injuries we didn’t quite have the strength and depth and the team was perhaps 4th overall.
For once my splits tell the same tale as my narrative.
5:23 5:36 5:39 5:49 5:49 5:43 5:45 5:45 6:22 6:00 6:11 5:28 5:28 0:32
Rob Downs