‘Michael Page’ NWFPAC 2022 Championship – Race 1: Alexandra Parkrun

Alexandra Parkrun saw the start of the NWFPAC 2022 Championship, where 21 of us gathered on Saturday 12th February.

A fantastic turnout for the first race, although as Dave reminded me, the first one is usually always the best attended; with some still on a health kick post-Christmas, it’s one of the smaller distance races, and of course it’s free!

With the weather looking a little ominous first thing, and temperatures not particularly appetising either, there was bound to be a few eager competitors hoping for a reduced turnout! On the whole, the weather held off for us. Alexandra Parkrun is a new course for me, and having heard a lot of patter of a “PB course” due to its hard and flat surface, the pressure was beginning to emerge.

The course seemed to contain several laps and included what looked to be about 5 different circles within circles – this wasn’t a concern as there were plenty of people ahead of me to show me the route. I have been resting an Achilles injury from December and so this was only my second run of the year, so it was going to be a bit of a lottery as to how my heel held up; so of course I had to manage expectations as to how I would perform, claiming to be “happy to walk if needs be”.

I shuffled toward the start-line, middle of the crowd and before we knew it, we were off. The sensible tactic of “I’ll just take it easy” seemed to be forgotten and the competitive side of me kicked in; forgetting all about my heel.

It was a lovely course, with lots of visual distractions along the way; although whilst the course was looping in and out, the visibility of the runners ahead was all too clear! I spotted fellow NWFPAC runners far in the distance many times, including my teammate Gareth Davies right up there, which was encouraging!

By lap 3, I was beginning to think I had missed a turn and done an extra lap as it felt like a long run already; however my watch confirmed I had only done 3.8km, so was on the right track. With the finish line soon in sight, I was overtaken by a good few runners who had a little left in the tank for a sprint finish, however the heel pain was starting to remind me of its presence.

A very enjoyable run with some very impressive results and included 5 PBs: Charlie Batho, Steven Henderson, Charles Singlehurst, Rebekah Ingham and Josh Nelson. Congratulations to Max Bridge who came 1st in the Championship and 4th overall with a time of 16:43, and Charlie Batho who broke his own V50 course record and got under 17 minutes for the first time, achieving 2nd place in the Championship, 8th overall. Well done to Claire Richardson and Rebekah Ingham for both running with their dogs, and Claire’s pup as the first dog home – although no extra points I’m afraid!

A great start to the season and some brilliant results too! The next event is The Trafford 10k on Sunday 6th March 2022.