Race Report

Wilmslow half-marathon - Sunday 19th March 1995

I kept training hard for Boston and did another local half-marathon although I didn't ease off for this one.

Morning all

Yesterday I ran my last race before the BOSTON marathon (4 weeks to go), the Wilmlsow 1/2 marathon. Wilmslow is a "posh" suburb of south manchester, about 20 miles SE of Warrington, this is also the home town of California dead Theresa McCourt. This is the biggest race in Cheshire and this year it hosted the english national 1/2 marathon championships. I travelled to the race with 3 of my clubmates, my 2 sunday long run "fast boys" training partners Ian and Neil and Ian's brother who is also called Neil. We got there about an hour before the start and went down to pick up our race t-shirts, some races give you shirts for finishing but this year Wilmslow Running Club gave out the shirts before the race. Chatted to some of my clubmates before the race, I agreed to run the first few miles with my clubmate Mike. I usually beat Mike by about a minute at 1/2 marathons but I wanted to save something for the end of the race today. Then ran 1.5 miles to warm up with Ian and the two Neil's to warm up then time to put my vest on and line up for the start. It was a cold windy day but I was going to tough it in vest and shorts as usual, there were a lot of runners overdressed (IMHO) wearing long sleeved shirts and tricksters and gloves and hats and stuff. I wear as little clothing as I can get away with in the race, it may be cold and the start but its how I feel in mid-race that’s most important. I had persuaded Mike to wear vest and shorts but he also had a hat on and had 2 bum bags, one containing a pair of gloves and another containing a drink!

Bang and off we set, there were 2000+ entrants so there was a lot of pushing and shoving for the 1st 1/2 miles, I ran just behind Mike once I got going. Very hard from then, gradually working our way through, 6.35 for 1st mile. Kept going hard and stayed with Mike, we passed Wayne (another clubmate) at 1.5 miles. 12.48(6.13 last mile) at 2 miles and already I was having to work hard to hang on, 3 miles 19.06(6.18), Mike was going for it today. I stayed with Mike to 4 miles 25.25(6.19) but I decided I didn't want to go this fast today, Boston was more important so I eased off and let him go, I didn't want to blow up 3 miles down the road. Then the procession of runners came past me, at 4.5 miles clubmate Dermot came past, I didn't try to race anyone although it felt strange to still feel comfortable and yet to have lots of runners coming past. 5 miles 32.24 (6.59), 6 miles 39.05 (6.41), 7 miles 45.55 (6.50) and the procession continued. Around here I got passed by 2 runners from Warrington RR (our friendly/deadly rivals) and by Graham (Daresbury runner), I decided to start racing again and put my foot down and started to work my way through. I got rid of Graham at 8 miles 52.28 (6.33), felt a bit tired by now but I was still passing runners, I could see Dermot ahead. At 9 miles 59.14 (6.46) I passed Dermot then the hill started. In my previous run here in 1993 I blew up at the bottom of this hill, I wanted to save something for this hill this year. I passed a few runners up the hill, 1/2 mile of climbing but it felt very easy compared to last time, after 9 miles of mostly traffic free country roads we were back on a main road and we had to stay on the pavement which made overtaking a bit tricky :-( Someone was shouting out positions around here, I was 310th. Over the top of Wilmslow's "heartbreak hill" and the downhill run to the finish started. 10 miles 65.46(6.32), didn't feel comfortable on the steep downhill bits but I was still working my way through although I got passed by 2 runners in "baggy shorts" :-( 11 miles 72.25 (6.39), 12 miles 78.59 (6.34). I was pretty tired by now, there was a long twisty road to the finish, this was tough, also running into the wind but I kept going hard and still passing runners, also passed a few people walking along here. 13 miles 85.35 (6.36) and picked up pace a little to finish in 86.15, just before the end I was in 290th place. Tired on finishing but I knew I could have gone faster if I wanted to, 2 minutes slower than my 1993 time. Through the funnel, lots of drinks (as usual I skipped all the drinks stations) and met up with my clubmates. Ian (73.xx) and fast Neil (74.xx) both set pb's and Mike also set a pb just dipping under 84 minutes. We hung around for Neil the brother but he had a bad run and ran 1h54.

Mike told me that as usual in a half-marathon he stopped at 6 miles for his drink and then started running again, some people just don't know how to race properly! Still he was too fast for me today. The race was won by last years race winner Andy Green of Warrington AC in a new course record of 64.39, Andy is a British marathon international and was also one of my classmates at school way back in the 1970's, I went to school with the champion of england, not bad eh? :-)

Legs rather sore at the end but my sore hamstring survived. 2 more weeks hard training to go before easing off for BOSTON.

bye from the 290th best 1/2 marathoner in england :-)

tony bell A.M.T.Bell@dl.ac.uk crystallographer and marathon runner (but not necessarily in that order :-)) engineering and physical science research council daresbury laboratory, daresbury, warrington, cheshire, UK. WA4 4AD.

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