Stamford Park Parkrun – ‘Michael Page’ NWFPAC 2019 Championship – Race #1
The belated start to the 2019 race series started on a fairly spring like morning, slightly damp underfoot but otherwise decent conditions for parkrunning.
If memory serves, the 2017 series started at Stamford Park in Stalybridge and I had recalled it being a fairly hilly course. In what is fast becoming a tradition of mine, I again forced a member of my family to come with me, this time my brother in law, a veteran but more recently lapsed parkrunner due to a bout of knee knack, who I'd managed to persuade to put his kit on and get back on it. I had advised him in advance about the hilly aspect of the course, which Jonny, for that is his name, dismissed as a geological impossibility on the basis that a course involving laps of a boating lake could not be hilly, what with lakes tending to be flat and water on a hill more typically being referred to as a river. We agreed to differ and off we went.
There was just time for a quick pre race catch up with fellow NWFPAC runner, and in particular my fellow Tax Tiger, Other Tim. Championship-wise it was already looking like a good weekend for the Tax Tigers on account of us both actually turning up to the same event for the first time in recent memory. Other Tim has been knocking out some decent parkrun times recently according to my Strava feed and I did consider the hitherto unthinkable possibility that he might even beat me.
The gun went and off we went, two laps of the top loop followed by a lap of the bottom loop. Charlie, Spencer and Rob disappeared off into the distance, never to be seen again (by me at least) and the Tax Tigers navigated the first loop in tandem, me just behind attempting to get some kind of tow off Other Tim.
My recollections of hillyness were very quickly confirmed, although any smugness I might have felt was countered by the fact that my lungs were screaming after an opening uphill drag, a sharp hill, followed immediately by some stairs and then another uphill drag. I was in danger of being dropped by Other Tim but I kept plugging away and on the second lap I managed to pass Other Tim on the way up and, buoyed by the fact that the last K and a half was seemingly all downhill, I pressed the accelerator and left him trailing in my wake. As the old saying goes, there's no I in Team, but there is in Tim!
With Other Tim apparently vanquished, I set myself the new target of getting under 20 mins, and after a lap of the bottom loop (which is flat, cause that's where the lake is) and a deceptively long home straight which I really should have taken more notice of on the way in when I arrived, I just about managed it, with a time of 19:59:59. Shamefully the parkrun officials subsequently rounded my time up to 20mins, which needless to say I have appealed in a strongly worded email, although as of yet I am still to receive a reply.
In terms of finishing places, Charlie apparently romped home as first NWFPAC finisher, followed by the rest of us, and then finally Jonny, some time later.
And finally Jonny and I put our differences behind us, as I agreed that lakes are indeed flat and he agreed that Stamford Parkrun is indeed hilly and we headed off in search of a brew to seal our reconciliation.
