19th
Saturday, 20th May 2006
(3 miles)
Martin’s
Race Ratings:
Scenery: 9 - reportedly the largest urban park in
PB Potential: N/A
Atmosphere: 9
Organisation: 10
- (though we weren’t very organised!)
Value: 0 - I might be
opening a can of worms here! The mini bus hire was £160 and hopefully the eight of us gave Alex £15 each, which
by my calculations leaves Alex a bit short! Plus I feel the club should meet
the full cost and give runners who took their cars a contribution to their
petrol. It was an 11 hour day for me and I really would have preferred to spend
it with my son, whom I only see on Wednesdays and weekends. As far as I’m aware
Beginner Friendly: 10 - It
was impossible to go of course!
Total score: 7.6
Six of us set off
in the mini bus from the
The minibus arrived
in good time for the M50 start time
of 11:00 am. Unfortunately, Alan Hudson
was delayed in traffic and, when Barry
Peatfield finished his leg, there was no one to take over. Derek Buckley was hastily despatched,
but maybe lost 30 seconds. I wasn’t there at the time, but I believe the air
was ‘blue’ as the team was doing
quite well. They managed to claw their way back and finished 5th, but were left wondering
what might have been! Maybe next year??!!! (Alex will be 50).
The M40 team of Alex, Alan Glasgow, Peter Cruse, myself, Peter Gleaves, Graham Vickers,
John Bertenshaw and Trevor Rayner
started at 1:30pm. Alex had
obviously done a lot of work on the itinery and given us all approximate
starting times.
The start is
downhill for approximately 250 yards, but this is more than compensated for by
the stiffest climb of the course lasting 1/3 of a mile. The old hands, (Barry Peatfield and Gary Pendlebury), were telling me to
take it easy on this bit! The course then levels out and has some downhill
bits. But at one mile, the 
course rises again.
The climb is not as severe but is longer, (about 700 yards), and brings you to
the Jamboree Stone. The course continues downhill for a ¼ of a
mile to the turning point. Once round the dreaded cones and you’re heading for
the finish, but first an uphill back to the Jamboree Stone. Then follows about a mile and a half downhill
running that levels out as you draw alongside Keepers Pool to your left. From here, there is ½ a mile to go. Richard Lawson, (Clayton), gave me encouragement here, but I hadn’t got a 
lot left in the
tank. The course now is undulating, but mainly uphill except the final few
yards which are downhill. (Peter Gleaves would have given Jonathan Prowse a run for his money on
this bit!)
I think I ran about
19:10. I could feel my calf injury
from the Preston Interclub and had
also lost a bit of fitness. Peter Cruse
took my picture next to Nick Rose. (For
our younger members, Nick Rose
competed for GB in the 1980 and 1984 Olympics and was a World
Record holder for the Half Marathon.
That’s one in the eye for you Mr
McCalman!!!)
Full results on John Lee Computing – www.joelee.co.uk
We came 32nd
out of 48 teams.
Written by: Martin
Bates
Submitted: 24th
May 2006
Edited by: Brenda J
Earnshaw WRR Website/Magazine Editor