Almost a PW at Belmont

Just KLM and I ventured to the start line for one of our local races which used attract almost all wfdbwgua contributors. Part of my warm-up comprised listening to commentary from Franchise FC where a certain fairly important football match was taking place. Still I managed to run to the bridge and back and tighten my laces. As expected conditions underfoot were somewhat damp. Even the first climb had areas to be avoided so we knew what to expect once the bog between Winter Hill and Noon Hill was reached. As always I lost loads of places in that stretch and regained a little on Georges Lane and climbing back up to WH but gone are the days where I could run the hill. More lost places on the descent to pull back three places on the run in to be greeted by KLM who I was surprised to find had only finished a minute in front of me. Of course, I'd forgotten my watch is set to pause when not moving. I must have been going so slow at some times that it decided to have a rest so what I thought was a 53:30 finish turned out to be 55:48 when I looked at the results with KLM at 52:07. Considering that I've not run all week and seem to have lost much fitness, I suppose I have to be satisfied with being quicker than 2007 and I suspect I was slower 10 years ago. Didn't hang around for the results but it looks like birthday boy Tony Hesketh was first V60 and Horwich won both team prizes and returned to my car to find out that Hudders had totally dominated Franchise FC so hopefully a 2 goal lead for the second leg will be sufficient.

Results