H is for Huge Result at the High Legh 10k

Round 2 of my 2014 race schedule saw me off to the leafy lanes of Cheshire today for the seventh running of the Robert Moffat Memorial High Legh 10k. This race filled up between Christmas and New Year and attracted 600 runners, each of whom were set in starting pens according to PB times, beginning with the sub-40 club, then 10-minute intervals after that. As a result I was already paying for the failure to go under 40 at the Birchwood Boulevard last year as I was positioned at the front of the 41-50 division. Also, since getting my Garmin at Christmas I'd realised how strong a sense of delusion I'd been getting from various run tracking software online; Garmin is accurate (and deadly so), MapMyRun less so. Anyhow, once I'd backed into a tree when parking the car in the church grounds and collected my number, I did far more stretches than normal but very little running as I feel like I've still not really got on top of excessive fuel use problems. The race referee called us over with 10 minutes to go, partly to laud the efforts of someone who was doing the High Legh race as recovery after beasting the Trafford 10k earlier in the morning (mad person or what?) and after the pleasantries were over, the horn sounded all too abruptly and we were underway.

The first kilometre was mostly uphill through the housing estate but I stuck with the tail of the sub-40 club and got out of the village in 3:52, not a bad start at all. After that it was down some country lanes not unlike those we faced last autumn in Lytham - or more to the point, the race which set the sub-40 10k target for me in the first place. I shared the workload with various members of Knutsford Tri Club, who were enjoying their home race with what looked around 500 entrants, but this group only had three of them in - and little me, just as well they don't know yet of our rebranding as ABC Triathlon or they'd have probably done the usual thing of "Stay Agitated And........" At the 3km mark the road turned uphill once more into a very hot, exposed wind down the A50 on a kerb that you had to use single-file. Soon, though, we were heading north once more towards the "phantom water station" which actually was stationed just after, rather than before, the halfway mark and a family cheering us on - with the obligatory two dogs per race count, naturally.

During the next two kilometres the road gradually turned slightly uphill once more, but don't tell that to today's Reject award winners; while all the other cyclists were extremely courteous to us and gave us space to run, two nutcases on tri-bars came bombing down the descent the other way just as we crossed to the right-hand side of the road - which was coned off no less. Did they not see the "caution runners" sign? They certainly didn't give triathletes a good name, that's for sure. Just before 8km the all-too-common motorway crossings began, and these brought back memories of last year's disaster on the Boulevard when my head started rocking sideways. No such worries today though; I dealt with a middle-aged chap just as we came up to the off-road path, namely the mud track near the corner shop, which was a little slippery, but at the left-turn it was back down another hill, which naturally meant another motorway crossing was coming up. At this point an old bloke on a Giant Defy pulled alongside and muttered "dig in now, not far to go". Well, we were now well past the point at which I started to feel unwell in that fateful race last year and now it was simply a question of picking up the pace gradually all the way until the final left-hander, at which point I let rip and sprinted for the line, just as a kid who must have only recently given up the pushchair shouted "GO ROBERT"  Did I mention we got personalised numbers? Oh yes, all part of the fun at any East Cheshire village race. It's also expected that you sprint down the final few metres, and knock off every second you can; however, on this occasion I was knocking off chunks of time, as having only come to get into the sub-40 club, I undercut the mark by no less than 54 seconds, placing me 29th on the day in a stunning time of 39:06. After all the hard work over the winter to correct (or at least mask) my various faults, it made all those hour-long runs in beast mode worthwhile - to say nothing of a certain Southport Waterloo member who recently spotted me on the brink of throwing up after doing 8x400m on the by-pass in sub-1:20 territory (here's calling you Kevan the White Van Man).

Credit must go to the organisers whose planning and presentation of the event was first class. As a nice counterpoint to the two dive-bombers who made triathletes look like reckless lunatics, it was nice to see Knutsford Triathlon Club lock out the podium as well as the team prize. And a nice lunch was also on offer, where you could get sausage barm, hot chocolate and two cakes, all for a fiver. Maybe not quite as good as a hot fudge sundae later consumed at Frederick's in the Trafford Centre Chill Factore complex, but what is? Still, a fine day was had by all; let's hope this event stays on the calendar for many years to come.

Now for the results, brought to you by Fredericks of Skelmersdale:

Distance: 10km
Time: A PB-shattering 39 minutes 6 seconds
Average Speed: 15.35kmh/9.29mph
Dogs: 2 
Motorway Crossings: 2
Trees nearly knocked over: 1 in the church car park 
"Robert" fans: 1 five-year-old
Lunatics: 2 on bikes with tri-bars
Gluco gels required: 0 
Post Race Nutrition: 9/10 (Sausage barm, lemon meringue pie, mini berry pavlova and hot chocolate followed by a sundae featuring - wait for it - chocolate ripple, pistachio and turkish delight ice cream in Chill Factore. A beer would have made it up to a 10)
 

REJECT OF THE RACE: Two Tools on Tri-Bars
(What part of "CAUTION RUNNERS" do you NOT understand)

Can't wait to get a proper warm-weather ride in next week. This heatwave really has come at just the right time!