NWFPAC ‘Michael Page’ Championship 2024 – Race 8: Alexandra Parkrun

What – no coffee!!

 The final run(1) of the championship season saw us gather at Alexandra Park, Moss Side.

 The park, designed 150 years ago with wide sweeping paths suitable for the Victorian fashion of park promenading lends itself well to the current fashion of parkrunning, providing a fast flat course.  Also the results appropriately reflected the fact Alexandra Park is across the road from the birthplace of Emiline Pankhurst.

 That’s enough from Wikipedia.

 With the top 2 in the individual championship missing at other events (Hyrox and Valencia Half – well done on the results both of you) Saturday was a day of a battle for the places and the closeness of the results didn’t disappoint.

 Whilst Daria had a chance of drawing level with Aisha in 2nd, the real battle looked to be in a cluster battling between 8th to 14th places, with a smaller group further down the table of the lethargic hares, (myself & Charlie) along with Rory, together on 21 points (having only competed in a couple of races).

 The weather was perfect so with a hustle for start position on a busy course everyone lined up ready to go.  With the help of a friend, I ended up quite near the front who was also keen to make sure he got the inside line for the first bend, so was hopeful of a good time.

 There was a slight delay whilst one embarrassed runner tried to catch his dog who had slipped the lead and decided it would be fun to zig zag repeatedly in and out the legs of the assembled starters.  After a few minutes and the dog back on the lead we were off.

 The course is two big laps plus a short loop, with only the hairpin on the big lap to slow you down (but also give you a chance to check out the position of the competition).

 Finish order saw Dan Harrison-Croft cross first of the Group, in 18.01.  I was then very pleased with my 4 year best time of 18.47, however as 14th and 20th male finishers respectively we were beaten to the points by Daria and Daisy who both did extremely well finishing 9th and 11th females – brilliant running in such a big field of runners – well done.

 The places battle which then followed was extremely close with some great times and the 7 runners together in the championship table all finishing within a couple of minutes of each other.  You can see how that translates in the final table below.

Whilst there were no PBs on the day most were close and I think everyone I spoke with seemed happy with their times so well done to all.

 The only(slight) downside to the day was that the park café was closed – so no spot for the normal post race catch up.  We will have to make up for that at the end of season social and awards on 13th November.

 1.  As event director at another local parkrun, I would be sacked for calling it a race!