RIBBLE VALLEY
Sunday 31st December 2006
Scenery: 9
PB potential: 9 (200 odd under 40 minutes)
Atmosphere: 9 (1,000 runners
and well supported by spectators)
Organisation: 4* (couldn’t find any water at the Finish and
the times were way out and bottlenecks at the finish & toilets looked a bit
thin on the ground)
Value: 10 - £5 to pre enter
Beginner Friendly:
10
Lee Barlow had phoned us for a lift and we picked him
up at 9. Driving past Norcross, we
saw Chrissie O’Connor and Alison Titterington starting a training
run.
Picked up T-shirts before the race. Nice to see Gary Pendlebury after his knee Op – he was picking up a number for Trevor Rayner and I thought he was
getting a number for himself!
Jogged up to the Start –
about 800 metres from the Registration. I took a credit card bill with
me to post and ended up giving it to a complete stranger, (a nice old granny –
I’m sure she was honest)!
‘Woody’ from bw&nf was there at the start
with a brown envelope with 4 pins through it pinned to his new vest. His real
number had done a disappearing act just as he was about to put it on…don’t ask
me how?????????. Maybe he’s had a tip from Brian ‘four
pins’ Wilkinson. I think it may have caused some confusion at the end
of the race, but we trust you Dave.
There
were nearly a thousand in the race. Quite a few too near the front as usual. I
stood further back at the Start than
I usually do as I had a dose of ‘man
flu’. I had my tracksters on and Kath
Hoyer asked me had I got a cold. I replied, “Yes” which was true, but I omitted the fact I’d wet all over the
front of me bright red shorts during a pre-race pee!
I set
off fairly steady and tried to work my way through. Every time I saw a vest I
recognised, I tried to catch it up. At the turn around, I ran alongside a
couple of ladies, (one from Clayton
and one from Holmfirth, I think).
The Holmfirth lady kept telling the Clayton runner to leave her and push
on, but she wouldn’t. I saw Les Endean
and Johnny Houghton running towards
us. Why didn’t they do the race?? It was only a fiver!! The nearer we got to
the Leisure Centre, the more shouts
of encouragement we received and I thought I might have a chance to scrape
under 40. I overtook a few on the hill, but finished in 40:16 (217th).
Joanna Goorney had got under 40 again! Also Carmel Sullivan ran another impressive
41-er too. There were 44 Wesham
finishers - (12 under 40 minutes)
1st Male: Stuart Stokes (
1st Female: Helen Clitheroe (19th
overall) (
It took a few minutes to get off
the car park, then we went for a pint to the Lower Buck Inn at Waddington,
(Bowland Hen Harrier) and one at the Waddington
Arms, BB7 3HP *(Sawley Tempted)
– both gorgeous pints in a lovely village. Waddington
was discovered by Michaela after the
Waddington 10K (22.10.06). The
village is a regular winner of The Lancashire
Best Kept Village. The second pub had a complimentary Sunday Mail so I sat there and read all about the football I’d
watched the night before and this morning, twice. Well do you blame me…..The
alternative was talking to Michaela!
I read
a quote in one of the papers: ‘It’s my own fault I hadn’t prepared enough.
I trained on curries, beer and Chinese takeaways’ (Jane Goody,
gourmet/superstar, on her collapse in the
We sped
off home and stopped off at my mums on the way back so I could read the paper
again.
Back to the race. I was so great to see the blue vests all out in force.
Let’s keep it up lads and lasses and make 2007
an even better year for us.
Written by: Martin Bates, (with a few
additions from Michaela)
Submitted: 6th January 2007
Edited by: Brenda J Earnshaw WRR Editor
*included
for Pete Cruse so he can key it into
his new Sat Nav
N.B.
I
believe times have now been corrected and are spot on, so I’ll give it a 9 for Organisation!