2016 Championship - Race 1 - South Manchester Parkrun

There is nothing like the first race of a new season – the anticipation of firm dry ground, warmer weather and good clean running. Thankfully race one was indeed nothing like the first race of the season with puddles which must have been six inches deep in places and went on for 50 metres or more at a time and near freezing weather! I’m writing this a day later on Sunday morning and feeling has returned to at least 8 of my toes….

I got there good and early to warm-up and also take part in the NWFPAC pre-race tradition of making sure you get your excuses in before the race. Anyone playing the NWFPAC bingo game would have been able to tick off “it’s been a long week at work”, “I’ve only recently come back from injury”, “actually I was out last night”, “this isn’t my distance” and “I’m just here to get round today” within minutes of arriving. There was a great turnout which was good to see and let’s hope that carries on through the season.

There was a brief delay in starting the race as Naz Zameer (Chorlton Runners) was awarded for becoming the first person to complete 250 South Manchester Parkruns and then we were off……

Another NWFPAC tradition is that Dave Simmons starts like Mo Farah in his prime over the first 400m to give the rest of us something to aim at. The usual exception to this is Steve Henderson who is usually found up near the front somewhere, although this year it also looks like Alex Mackenzie, Matt Smith and Gareth Davies have added some speed to proceedings, along with several others! Anyway, Dave set off in traditional form, creating a mini-wake behind him as he battled through the puddles – the good news here was that after about 100m in 4C water you really can’t feel the cold anymore!

I managed to catch Dave along with Brian Devlin and Rik Heap around 2km. We were then in quite a tight group throughout the race which was good fun and thankfully Brian and I managed to drop Dave and Rik around 4km before having a good battle together over the final 400m around the lake.

My final time was 20m13s which was 5s slower than last year which I was pleased with given the conditions. On crossing the line, I saw Steve Henderson, Carl Acton and Byron Edwards standing there looking as though they hadn’t run. Steven modestly said he’d enjoyed the race before revealing he’d actually won it!

I’m looking forward to the next one :-)

Provisional Results – Men

1. Steven Henderson (EY Transaction Advisory Services) – 17:35 – 1st overall – 20 points

2. Alex Mackenzie (Michael Page)– 18:18 – 5th overall – 18 points

3. Matt Smith (Deloitte) – 18:39 – 7th overall – 16 points

4. Gareth Davies (Michael Page)– 18:52 – 9th overall – 14 points

5. Carl Acton (Deloitte) – 18:58 – 12th overall – 12 points

6. Tim Shaw (Deloitte) – 18:59 – 13th overall – 10 points

7. Spencer Seymour-Smith (HSBC) – 19:02 – 14th overall – 9 points

8. Byron Edwards (Lombard) – 19:03 – 15th overall – 8 points

9. Sam Roden (HSBC) – 19:45 – 21st overall – 7 points

10. John Williams (EY Transaction Advisory Services) – 20:13 – 27th overall – 6 points

11. Brian Devlin (NatWest) – 20:15 – 28th overall – 5 points

12. Rik Heap (Leonard Curtis) – 20:18 – 29th overall – 4 points

13. Jonathan Simpson (HSBC) – 20:31 – 31st overall – 3 points

14. David Simmons (Ascent Corporate Finance) – 20:36 – 33rd overall – 2 points

15. Wesley Mort (HSBC) – 20:52 – 37th overall – 1 points

16. Matthew Savage (BDO) – 24:11 – 99th overall – 1 points

17. Aaron Hill (Michael Page) – 26:56 – 148th overall – 1 points

18. Christian Fell (Michael Page) – 28:48 – 177th overall – 1 points

Provisional Results – Ladies

1. Fran Whittle (KPMG) – 23:31 – 5th Lady overall – 20 points

2. Nicola Deeran (Deloitte) – 28:47 – 40th Lady overall – 18 points

3. Hannah Grant (Deloitte) – 29:51 – 48th Lady overall – 16 points