‘Michael Page’ NWFPAC 2021 Championship – Race 5: Alderley Edge By-Pass 10k

All athletes love a good motto to help them through dark times:

• Success doesn’t happen in straight lines.

• If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

Two weeks ago I ran the Wigan park run the day before the NWFPAC 10k race and it worked out ok, so I thought I’d do the same again here. My attempt to run it easy obviously failed as adrenaline took over and I took an early lead on the downhill that I had to then dig deep to hold on to - I mention this only because it’s relevant to my story below and I’m going to refer back to it for an excuse later.

Had I bothered to check the details properly in advance I would have realised that (i) the course was not the pan flat PB track I recall was mentioned at some point (probably by Dave - see below for more of his lies!) and (ii) the queue just to get into the car park was an indication that there were a lot more people taking part here than at Oulton Park, and with just one distance to focus on, that was almost certainly going to see a big step up in class.

As we waited near the start I had the usual nervous looks around for who might be running and how fresh they were looking. Sam pushed me all the way in the last race so I knew he’d be quick, but I didn’t see him so assumed/ hoped he hadn’t made it. I’d bumped into Daves Simmons and Chambers (the race being the middle of his three 10ks on the day I mistakenly thought he wouldn’t be competitive as he’s training for the madness of the ring of fire in less than two weeks) and Lee.

When I first started taking part in the NWFPAC races about 3 years ago, two names dominated the events, posting mythical times that for the rest of us non-seasoned runners had to be seen to be believed. Sadly injury continues to rule Byron out (that or he’s now switched to cycling full time), but Charlie Batho, “fresh” from almost 500km marathon training in the past 5 weeks, joined us in the starting pen for a good pre-race chat and, along with Matt Smith, looked very relaxed.

Dave S assured me that, with Charlie’s focus was on the upcoming marathons and that Matt was hoping to get under 38m, “you’ve got it in the bag”.

There was still time for Nicola to come and say hi, a good 5 minutes before the race started (new pb?) and great news for the team event as I feared the volume of people would get in the way of her usual “abandon the car and run to the start warm up”.

Unperturbed by Dave’s optimism I adopted my usual “scalded cat” approach to the first km, run hard, then check the time, check how I feel and then try and relax into the race accordingly. I’d picked a pace I thought I could maintain (I couldn’t) and one that would keep the others at bay (it didn’t). before the second km marker Matt had trotted past. With Dave’s words still ringing in my ears I had a plan, Matt was running far too fast for a 38min pace, keep close and re-take the lead on the hill when he ties-up. Over the next km Matt’s lead became 10 metres, then 20, then 30.

Next Charlie glided past with an encouraging thumb up. His average pace over the race was just 6 seconds a km faster than mine, agonisingly slow enough to witness the elastic band between us snapping, but too fast to do anything about it.

So, 5km in to our race, having run my fastest ever 5k (albeit slope assisted), and still watching the first two podium places disappearing far into the distance, I was fearing the same outcome for my own race. Nearing the turn was the last time I saw Matt (he was going the other way and showing no signs of slowing down as he finished in 35:19 - congratulations on the win and the PB Matt).

Thankfully to place well on our overall leaderboard turning up is more important than running fast … and so as long as I could keep Dave Chambers and Sam behind me it would still be a good race for me and the team.

Rounding the turn I could see just how close behind Dave Chambers was … too close for comfort and a lot closer than someone should be with an extra 10k in the legs when I'd never run faster!

I managed a couple of high-fives on the way back but the adrenaline they give is short-lived. If the first half of the race was enjoyable, the remainder was a return to when I first did a handful of organised runs (with very little training inbetween), switching from shirt-tails to shirt-tails, all going in different directions, just to hang on to in the hope that I could hold on to third position as that parkrun began to take its toll.

The magazines do say that if you do the training the race is easy, but this was no time to question my lack of recent mileage, it was a time to dig in, zone out for 500m behind a bloke from St Helens, swapping places up the hill with a guy probably 15 years my senior from Wilmslow, all to distract from the suffering, all to fight the urge to stop, and hopefully to give enough of an impression to anyone chasing me (the bright orange t-shirt target was a mistake!) that today was not going to be the day that I overcook the start and have to do the walk of shame when the [non-Duracell] batteries run out.

Thankfully I only had to run to 9k, as my own motto is “the last km is free”, I doubt I would have won any sprint finishes in the last km, but I knew I wasn’t going to stop. Like Wigan winning the FA Cup, not always pretty, but it turned out to be a reasonably effective way of getting round. And whilst I’ll almost certainly get relegated when the superstars come back, and people aren’t focusing on other events, for now I’ll just enjoy it and try and train harder.

I didn’t see Charlie cross the line, but his 35:40 must have pushed Matt all the way.

Dave Chambers was just 22 seconds behind me and closing fast (congratulations on the PB Dave!) with Sam just 22 seconds behind Dave. Dave Simmons was next to sprint across the line in 42:12, his best for 7 years … so all the more galling that this wasn’t enough to stop Nicola taking the points in sixth place to move into joint second in the table (although Sam and Dave Chambers look ominously placed if they can get the races in!).

Alan looked pleased and relieved in equal measure when he came through the finish in a solid time. Congratulations to Lee on a new PB (seems I’m the only one who didn’t see this as a PB course!!) and to David Gorman who picked up 11 points for tenth place.

The post-race breakfast barms were well-earned today!