After threats of heavy rain for the days leading up to the race, Sunday dawned bright and clear with beautiful blue skies and warm temperatures for what was to be an excellent day for a half-marathon.
number pinned on and my timing chip secured to my shoe. The RAF Falcons Parachute Display Team arrived at 9:55, a little later than planned, causing the race to be delayed by a few minutes, but made for an excellent diversion as they swooped down trailing smoke and landing, only to strip off their parachutes and jumpsuits to join the rest of us in running the race.
The race start itself was a bit of a bottleneck, but once over the start line we were free to run at our own pace and I set off strongly on the roads leading away from Victoria Park and the city centre. The route overall rises in the first half of the race, and we were soon running besides canals and out into the countryside south of Warrington, which made it a nice race for the scenery as well as having a better last 6 miles as we turned back toward the city and started to descend.
At around 7 miles I met a friend of Sandbach Striders and Deja Vu runner Trisha Bunn and a mile later passed her husband Richie, but by now I was firmly set on getting to the finish in Victoria Park. As the country lanes gave way to main roads (traffic-free), we headed back into the city and the mile markers hit double figures I increased my pace to try to cross the finish line well under my personal best time of 1 hour, 46 minutes and 36 seconds. As I passed the 12 mile marker we ran onto paths again as we ran into the start of Victoria Park and I realised that I was close to getting under 1 hour 40 minutes. I pushed on, passing runners every few strides and finally turned out of the trees onto the path running down toward the start/finish area. The lead-in was lined with spectators cheering the runners on, and I pushed a little faster as I saw the finish approaching, sprinting past one last runner to cross the line.
Having forgotten my Garmin I waited for my official confirmation to arrive by text, and was delighted to find that my chip time was 1:40:40, which was 5:56 faster than my previous PB, and I had finished 302'nd out of a field of 1537 finishers, so a good day at the office!
My thanks go to Matt Simister for the place, and I may very well go back next year to try for a sub 1:40...
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Steve Treweeks