4 Villages Half Marathon, Sunday 21st January 2007

Report by Sonia Harris

Buoyed with anticipation of running in our new vests (courtesy of 'J.Dabbs RunHill-Fashions') and not too distracted by the huge black rain storms on the M56 we ventured early on Sunday to Helsby, Cheshire Countryside, for the running of the 26th 4 villages half marathon. Out of the 1600 starters 18 would be from MTC, considering ~5 took part in 2006's race this is an indication of the huge growth in the club!

After taking the arranged park and ride (green bonus point) we met with some friendly reassuring faces in the clubhouse where first discussions were 'How much lycra are you wearing?' 'Are you wearing your shorts'... and 'Oohh aren't our new vests nice' (obviously didn't get much from Santa this year!).

Following the obligatory 3 toilet stops, dropping bags off, and running around the rugby pitch 121 times (no names mentioned) we headed off to the mass start in the supermarket car park... a trolley dash would have been more appealing had it not been for the sun to make a very timely appearance at the off. Where I was positioned I've no idea how the race at the front panned out... and what gun?? It was nice though to have a ripple of applause and support from a few local supporters at the start but it soon became apparent that this was going to be nothing like my first half in Prague last year where we had crowds and local bag ladies shouting you along...'This is fairly serious I thought... and everyone looks like they are runners by choice!!'

The route itself was actually quite pleasant; after leaving the roads we followed a maze of lanes through farms and countryside linking up the '4 villages' not that I really noticed them! The race brief had mentioned this hill rising steadily at 8 miles, but it wasn't as bad as we had anticipated as we thought it could have been something to do with that big hillock you see from the M56 at Chester services.. phew!! The 'hill' actually then presented an opportunity for a really fast finish.. if your legs could carry you, with a great sprint down some lanes, then back to reality with a finish in the housing estate.

As for the race then... at the business end there were a few keen competitions going on. After just being pipped to the post by 2 seconds at the Stockport 10 a month earlier, James Smith promised beforehand to "sit on Jonathan's heels and then take him in a sprint finish and get revenge". This was looking likely as James has been flying around the track, and he had Jonathan worried. True to his word, James spent 10 miles tucked in behind Jonathan, and whatever pace Jonathan ran at, James just sat 1 metre behind. Jonathan only had one solution. At 10 miles he cranked up the pace and kicked on the hills to try and take the sting out of James's finish. It worked better than planned, and created a 30 second plus gap by mile 12 to ensure James's sprint finish would not be enough. James was happy enough though, as he smashed his previous PB by several minutes. Jonathan goes on to finish in an awesome 1:18 40th overall!!

Dave Ratcliffe and Martin Webb also ran together for the bulk of the race, and gave the other encouragement throughout to ensure that they both came home with PB's. More PB's included Rob Harper sneaking in under the hour and a half mark and also dark horse Viv clocking in with an excellent 1:40 in her first ever half marathon!!

As for me... well with the Pennine relays knocking at our door in 2 weeks time poor old Jude offered to stick with me for the 13.1 miles, as she will have to on the 4th Feb. So this became my personal goal to finish without my new coach shouting at me too much for being too slow!! After the first mile in well under 8mins I thought hey up, this definitely wasn't in the agreed plan of anything under 8.45 min/miles. I thought I'm in for a painful ride!! 'Slow down'... good she listened. The middle few miles were spent with Jude getting impatient and more grumpy and me getting slower... however the turning point came when the second 8 mile marker was quickly followed by a 9 mile marker 20yds after and I thought excellent the description said it's soon to be down hill. And so it proved to be, providing welcome relief as we sped up and started overtaking people!! However I should have known but my new coach had a new game to play... 'the catch up game'. 'Come on let's catch up the blue and yellow shirts now...' 'good.. now that lady who's been chatting all race she doesn't deserve to beat us'... 'good right now let's get the record holder... in the women's 60+catergory!!'. Anyway Jude's persistent brain mental efforts were rewarded with my 2 fastest miles and a big smile at the finish, or was that grimace!! In the end I came in 1 minute outside of my Prague time but poor old Jude sacrificed a chance of a PB to practice (or rather drag me along) for next week. So I'm very grateful and now I do have some hope for the Pennine's in 2 weeks!!!

The results show some great individual performances by club members at Helsby and I'm sure for many this will provide a solid foundation for the exciting season to come. Well done!

Overall then the race was set on an interesting pleasant course, it was organised well, the marshals friendly, the sun shone for the whole race and as ever the MTC company great. The best part though was running in our new vests... and even better was receiving some support during the race by a cyclist shouting 'Come on Man Tri'. Excellent!!!

Dave Moon 'I felt 10 feet tall with my new vest. A great day for all'

Viv Slack 'Felt proud of my man tri vest, it acted as a badge saying 'I might not be the best runner but I can cycle and swim too!!'

Rob Harper 'Cracking race, driving over there in torrential rain couldn't believe it when the sun came out, and stayed out for the whole race only for it to start raining again the moment I got back to the car!'

Martin Webb 'Don't forget mine was a PB, and I had to work b****y hard for it over the last 3 miles!!'

Results

Name	Position	Gun time	Chip time
Jonathan Dabbs	40	01:18:54	01:18:49
James Smith	42	01:19:27	01:19:21	PB
Philip Stannard	75	01:22:48	01:22:42
Rob Harvey	128	01:25:41	01:25:35
Rob Harper	232	01:30:06	01:29:36	PB
Chris Diggle	423	01:36:34	01:35:17
Dave Ratcliffe	431	01:36:49	01:35:45	PB
Martin Webb	436	01:36:59	01:35:55	PB
Paul Cassels	445	01:37:17	01:35:56
Andy Quicke	509	01:39:23	01:38:02
David Moon	564	01:40:37	01:39:21
Viv Slack	583	01:41:10	01:40:33	PB
Matthew Hodgson	597	01:41:32	01:40:44
Michael Dumbell	670	01:43:46	01:41:51
Vicki Wade	753	01:46:01	01:45:28
Hugh McKenna	880	01:49:30	01:48:14
Sonia Harris	957	01:51:40	01:50:59
Judith Wall	956	01:51:40	01:51:01

Back to main results page