Macclesfield half

After the disappointment of last week, Sunday's Macclesfield half marathon came as something of a relief. Following a fast start, strong on exuberance and low on commonsense with a fastest mile of 7 mins 03 secs on this rural course that has a total climb of nearly 2,000 ft., the hills started to bite. The climbs are long and hard with some sharp descents, the last ascent coming at 10.5 miles and lasting until 12 miles.

Throughout, the target has been the over 0/70s record which demanded an average of 8 mins 30 secs per mile and by the halfway point it obvious that only a disaster of Langdale proportions was going to thwart this ambition.

The line was crossed in 1 hr 43 mins 55 secs, almost 8 mins inside the previous record and guaranteed the other objective of first 0/70.

Perusing the posted results, post race, a younger veteran runner standing behind me said to his mate: "Wow (expletive deleted) look at that 1 43 at 70" his mate repeated "(expletive deleted) 1.43 at 70" at which point I felt compelled to come clean before the third joined in. It was almost as rewarding as the £20 vouchers I won plus the £10 spot prize voucher.

Sir Nicholas Winterton presented the prizes and was moved to make a comment each time he handed over the vouchers. Make what you will of his remark as I approached "...and all the way from Chorley, looking very distinguished..." Maybe he should have gone to Specsavers.