Heaton Park Parkrun - 'Michael Page' NWFPAC 2019 Championship - Race #7
Despite this being my one NWFPAC race all year, Simmo decreed I should also be race reporter! I’m not sure that's entirely fair, but here goes....
As aforementioned, I haven't participated once this year. However, this was not through being lazy, but rather that I have an ankle issue that is taking a long time to resolve. All credit to my team mate Byron though, as he refused to replace me earlier this year when I became aware of the long term nature of my problem and he soldiered on alone.
Things took a turn however at the point Byron realised that we could still be in the running for a team trophy, and Simmo advised that in the spirit of good sportspersonship that both team members should register at least one race in the year. So, with concern for my well-being going out of the window, Byron instructed me, on pain of death and despite the leaving do I was attending the prior evening, to make sure that I was on the startline and finished (even if I had to walk), the penultimate championship race. (Thank god he didn't ask me to do the final one). Although the first place positions for the individual and team events were pretty much in the bag, there was a bit of jostling for the second and third positions, making this an important race.
On the morning of the event it turned out to be a day that the heavens dumped I swear about 6 months of rain on us, but I dutifully arrived at Heaton Park, to be greeted by a torrent of water flowing across one of the paths I knew we would be running along. Being someone who hates getting her feet wet, this was not a welcome sight! Fortunately I had brought a waterproofish jacket and a complete change of clothes; that was a very wise move! I met up with most of our competitors and then Simmo announced he was going to take it easy and run with me. Great! It was nice to hear though that I wasn't the only person there under orders from their team mate, as Gareth had also been instructed to attend by Charlie, who wasn't able to himself.
After the longest run brief I've heard (albeit actually I couldn't hear it) in a while we set off. Within a minute both feet were completely covered by the first of many, many deep puddles. Such joy! Most of you know the route, so I won't go into too much detail, except to say that it was more akin to swimming and apparently we also had to run the longer route that day. More joy!
The run was punctuated for me by a lot of Simmo chatting with the many people that he knows, and him encouraging me to catch up to the 30 minute pacer. Unfortunately it was only once I was running that I realised I hadn't eaten when I was out the previous evening, or that morning, so I was running on a completely empty tank. This was not going to be pretty! It got worse about 500 metres from the finish when Simmo announced that there were two women in front of us that I could definitely catch. I however knew I definitely couldn't as I was barely holding on as it was. My last two hundred metres were spent trying to suppress the feeling that I wanted to be sick. The pain that I was feeling from my ankle was for once the least of my concerns. I was however very pleased that despite the challenging conditions I managed to take another few seconds off my previous parkrun time. Slowly building the speed back up, albeit still way off where I used to be.
In the café afterwards it was lovely to hear Simmo say how nice it was to just leisurely run around for once! There's nothing more heart-warming than someone jogging casually alongside you while you're giving it everything you've got! (Only joking, it was very nice having him run with me). There wasn't long to hang around catching up with everyone though due to the parking restrictions at Heaton Park, and also Gareth had to rush off to file his report of the event with Charlie!
In terms of results, Byron was over the moon to have another first finish at Heaton, meaning that he also achieved first finisher in our own little race. Closely followed in second place by Paul Bannister (great to see you at one of our races Paul). Paul was followed by Gareth Hurfurt (3rd), David Chambers (4th), Stewart Howarth (5th - great to see you were at one of our races, although we didn't actually see you on the day), Alan Reynolds (6th) and Adam Stirling, before Simmo and myself brought up the rear. In gender ranking however, I managed to sneak ahead of Adam meaning that I finished overall in 7th position, with Adam and Simmo taking 8th and 9th (full details can be found in the table below). These results mean that Byron has secured the individual title this year. Well done Byron! Lethargic Hare have almost secured the team trophy (Gareth, you need to run and finish the last one too to guarantee it), with our team currently in second place.
Overall, this was not the most pleasant of runs that I've ever completed, but at least Byron will leave me alone now that he gets another trophy!