by Sandbach Striders
on Friday 2nd January 2015
Five brave striders met on a freezing Sunday morning for a trip to Adlington (Macclesfield), for there annual 'Winter Warmer 10k' race.
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| Striders getting ready for the Adlington Winter Warmer |
This is a 10k race with a difference, all watches, GPS and phones were banned, the race was a 'predictathon', the idea being, to predict your finishing time. The person who finished nearest their predicted time, was the winner, the beauty of this being, anyone had a chance to win.
We (Denis, Paul, Lindsay, Jaz and myself) arrived in good time with an hour to spare to the start. There wasn't much enthusiasm for getting out the car, as temperatures were around -4 Celsius. So our warm up took a more unconventional approach, sitting in the car, with the heating turned on full blast! One of the attractions of this race was the course. It was essentially half 'Maccesfield Canal' tow path, and half the 'Middlewood Way', a disused railway line, much like our 'Salt Line way', which made for a great run.
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| Denis running along the canal |
With 10 minutes to go, we braved the cold for a quick warm up run, and after a quick breifing, we were sent on are way. After a short run we soon picked up the Macclesfield Canal tow path, which we followed for what felt like a couple of miles, we then took a short run of, and picked up the Middlewood Way. What was evident, without any watches or mile markers, we were very much running blind, and it was difficult to know how far we'd gone, and more importantly how far we'd got left to go. After what felt like about 20 minutes of running, we were then directed back onto the road for a short run before picking up the canal tow path again. I was considering in my head whether to push for home, when the finishing funnel suddenly appeared, to late! A few minutes later, Denis appeared, with Paul close behind, with Jaz and Lindsay, finishing soon after.
We all agreed this was a great run, flat, off road, cheap (£5), and a perfect antidote to, too much indulging over the festive period.
Tony T
