"Great"? Manchester 10K

[stillwaddler]

Soggy is perhaps the best overall description of the Great Manchester 10K. I’ve done this race every year since it started in the Commonwealth games year of 2002, back then it was a pretty good affair, decent organisation, timed markers at the starts and those raising money for a charity – me included, were doing it because they really wanted to, not because they had to buy themselves a place.

The race seemed more about “How many people can we pack into the city just so we can claim a record as the “biggest” 10k race”. It very definitely isn’t a race. There were four different wave starts, but these were mixed ability, people erroneously thought they were graded waves, but no, they must have been assigned on some sort of random basis, there were certainly no markers or pens for suggested finishing times, everyone was lumped in together so that I found myself dodging around walkers strung right across the course at approx. the 200 metre mark!

Instead of starting in a straight line up Oxford Road, we were strung out around a corner. I never saw or heard anything from the start line, and was completely unaware that we had started until people began shuffling forward a little. It was raining which was just fine except that loads of morons had discarded their bin liners and water bottles right in the middle of the road, lots of people nearly came to grief on them. Highlight of the race was just after the start when I heard someone with a very deep voice yelling “Mum”, recognised the dulcet tones instantly, it was my middle child who had come to cheer on his girlfriend!

So, both a soggy and chaotic start. The first section through the city centre was pretty congested as I had anticipated, but I managed to push on a bit and according to my Garmin, which had actually deigned to work for some of the time, I was on target for a sub hour. Continually dodging the walkers and nearly coming to grief a couple of times when people decided to stop dead in front of me I made my way out to the Chester Road. The Chester Road is boring, it’s a dual carriageway what more can I say, it undulates a bit, going slightly more down hill on the way out. Best bit is coming alongside United’s ground, I did pay homage as I passed as is customary.

Considering I had been dancing the light fantastic the night before, wining, dining and generally having a thoroughly good time until about 3am at Chester Racecourse, followed by an early breakfast and a dash back to Manchester, I was feeling Ok’ish and was still on for a sub hour. So what happened in the second half?

They have changed this part of the course again, lots more tightish corners and very narrow sections, but they were negotiated safely. Then came the only water station at just 6k and some idiot who had been running in front of me to the right hand side of the road decided to veer straight across my path to get some water from the left hand side of the road – why? There were water stations all along both sides and they stretched for quite a few yards, our collison very nearly wiped me out. Spent the next few minutes dodging missiles as people lobbed their still full water bottles overhead to the side of the road, those that didn’t lob them just dropped them at their feet for someone else to stumble over.

Garmin was faltering a bit on the return section down the Chester Road, kept getting weak signal warnings, I Stillwaddled on, weaving my way around and trying to keep the pace up. At last a marker 8 k, according to my watch the sub hour was still do-able, I pressed on, playing tag with a guy of similar age who had the air of an experienced runner. One of the slight rises which I pushed the pace up a bit for upset my right hip which had been giving me quite a bit of discomfort in the past week, I felt a sharp stabbing pain and it felt as if it would give way. I limped for a bit and then decided to ignore it – it went away! The 9k marker became visible through the drizzle, I was upping the pace a bit, but with 800 meteres to go I knew I wasn’t going to make the sub hour, lots of people to weave around but I was still pushing and wheezing audibly. The finish is hidden around a bend where the Chester Road joins Deansgate, it began to look a long way. I plodded on but only achieved 1 hour 50seconds.

Dissapointed and soggy I collected my goody bag. Best thing about this race is the tee shirts, really good quality,mind you they should be considering the entrance fee. Some people were a bit miffed to find that their bag contained a medal for the Great Edinburgh Run – oops!

Never got into the atmosphere, in fact I’m not sure if there was very much to be truthful, can’t blame people for not wanting to spectate when it was lashing down, there were quite a few in the city centre, but very few along the rest of the course. Checked the Garmin and I had run 6.47 miles, probably slightly more as it had lost satellite contact a few times, so my theory is that my pace was fine it was the distance that was wrong !!! ;-) Incidentally felt quite smug as master SW’s girlfriend- who is built on the lines of a racing snake and is all of 19 years old, did it in a hour exactly – there’s hope for the Old Girl yet.

Still felt good to finish and had a certain glow as I sloshed along to meet Mr SW who had languished in a coffee shop reading the Sunday papers for the duration of the race.

Chester racecourse had been hosting the Chester half marathon that morning, if I had known about it in advance I think I would have preferred to take part in that. Monday morning saw me signing up for the City of Manchester 10k to be held at the end of June from the athletics track at the side of the Manchester City stadium, this is run by the YMCA and is the original Manchester 10k but was ousted by the mega bucks of the “Great” Run Co. I’m rather looking forward to it. TTFN