Wilmslow Half Marathon, Sunday 25th March 2007

Report by Martin Webb

The 23rd Wilmslow Half Marathon took place on Sunday 25th March 2007 with blue skies and albeit a little breeze. This was in complete contrast to the previous Sunday when winter like conditions prevailed with a howling gale. Race day saw a good turnout of Manchester Triathlon Club members. Unfortunately no gazebo to congregate round this year as both have temporarily disappeared!!!

A few people were on their 3rd Half Marathon of year already and the race started with high expectations for all particularly those looking to take advantage of the fast Wilmslow course and knock significant time from their Four Villages or Blackpool times. Others with spring marathons in mind were looking for a good time but remaining injury free.

Despite the fair weather a few of the top club performers from last year were missing leaving the way open for some others to be racing at the sharp end... Mike Hunt takes up the story...

"Wilmslow has been my big "pre-London" target race throughout all the hard nights of winter training and it was really exciting when Sunday finally came around... the excellent weather was an added bonus. I got to the Rugby club in plenty of time and proceeded to have my customary pre-race kip. Next to find a quite spot to warm up... this was tricky!! I succeeded though and found a nice woodland trail at the back of the rugby club. And so to the start... recognised a few places and spotted a Man-Tri vest not sure who?! Off went the gun and mayhem ensued for 400m... I never can understand the people who set off at Mach 1 pace!!! Anyway I settled into my running quite well and reamed the first 3miles off in slightly under 6min mile pace... I was also paying attention to my HRM and was pleased that it was steady at 162BPM (8BPM lower than my target Marathon Heart rate). Being more used to Middle distance running the temptation was to pick up the pace but I had a race plan to stick to 6min miling until 8miles and I was determined to stick to it.... At about 6 miles the plan seemed to be working and I started to reel quite a few people in... still feeling quite comfortable. And then I spotted the Man-Tri vest - this gave me an incentive and as it was around 7/8miles I decided to pick up the pace a bit. This was really where the race began for me although it was frustrating that the wind had freshened significantly and much of the return 6 miles was against what seemed an ever increasing incline. The last 2-3miles felt tough but I was feeling quite strong and when I saw crowds at the end of a lane I began my push for home... but alas too early was the cry as I turned and saw that there was another 400m to go before the finish. I pushed on knowing that my target of 1:18 was unfortunately gone, but took satisfaction from the fact that the race went to plan and that I remained "injury free" for next months London Marathon. Well done to all those from Man-Tri who took part... a great team turn out."

Meanwhile Luke Walsh was to finish as the leading men's finisher from the club with Gudrun Ravetz made it a family double by finishing in a stunning 1.29 to finish the leading MTC lady.

Gudrun was very pleased with her race - "I was very pleased with the result. It is a PB and takes 15 minutes off my previous 1/2 marathon time (which was 4 years ago). Since joining Man tri last year it has really focussed me on competing and I have trained harder in the last year than ever. Training for the Paris marathon this year has certainly improved my running. Ultimately training with Luke helps as I am constantly trying to catch him so that he does not have enough time to eat all the food before I finish."

Similarly Luke was pleased - "It was great to see so many from Man Tri at Wilmslow. I am very pleased with my result. It is always nice to get a P.B. The last 3 miles were really tough though, especially running against the wind. My aim now is to get a P.B in the Paris marathon and get under 2h 50".

Gwill Morris in his first half marathon ran well and like many others struggled in the second half of the race.

His comments were... "a nice day, knee hurt at 6 miles, chose to ignore, hurt lots at 11 miles, decided to finish anyway, now can't walk"

I think these comments summed up the race for many as the wind and the slightly uphill last few miles took their toll.

Personally having got a PB (1:35:55) at Four Villages I was looking to knock a further 2 minutes off at Wilmslow. To help with this I had adopted weight saving strategies such as a pair of racing shoes, coupled with actually losing some more weight. Anyway I got the shoes but still had the weight! At the finish with another PB (clock time 1:35:15) under my belt I felt a little disappointed not too have got closer to 1:34, however it leaves me with a target for later in the season. The only problem I then had was making it to the other side on Wilmslow on foot - I would have been quicker crawling!

Results

Pos	Cat Pos	Cat	Gen Pos	Gen	Name	Time
46th	33rd	u/40M	44th	M	Luke Walsh	1:17:43
59th	41st	u/40M	54th	M	Michael Hunt	1:19:01
76th	52nd	u/40M	69th	M	Chris Standidge	1:20:52
81st	55th	u/40M	74th	M	Robert Bell	1:21:29
88th	59th	u/40M	81st	M	Mark Bradbury	1:22:05
89th	60th	u/40M	82nd	M	Tony Jolly	1:22:07
95th	63rd	u/40M	88th	M	Robert Harvey	1:22:23
116th	72nd	u/40M	106th	M	Konrad Steinert	1:23:55
212th	114th	u/40M	193rd	M	Chris Diggle	1:27:17
215th	115th	u/40M	195th	M	Rob Harper	1:27:29
224th	121st	u/40M	202nd	M	Chris Brobin	1:27:45
277th	16th	u/35L	29th	L	Gudrun Ravetz	1:29:38
343rd	175th	u/40M	310th	M	Gary Wolstencroft	1:31:16
350th	180th	u/40M	317th	M	Gwill Morris	1:31:27
371st	45th	M45	335th	M	Dean Frost	1:31:57
408th	23rd	u/35L	44th	L	Amy Roberts	1:32:56
415th	204th	u/40M	371st	M	Paul Cassels	1:33:08
531st	95th	M40	474th	M	Martin Webb	1:35:38
542nd	264th	u/40M	484th	M	Nathan Gladwell	1:35:58
589th	40th	M50	524th	M	David Moon	1:36:59
599th	11th	L35	67th	L	Vicki Wade	1:37:14
629th	85th	M45	555th	M	Dave Deaville	1:37:39
679th	317th	u/40M	591st	M	Neill Hughes	1:38:45
705th	330th	u/40M	614th	M	Darren Roberts	1:39:06
728th	341st	u/40M	632nd	M	Mark Walker	1:39:25
784th	47th	u/35L	106th	L	Viv Slack	1:40:15
792nd	369th	u/40M	686th	M	Richard Hyder	1:40:26
861st	149th	M40	745th	M	David Waterhouse	1:41:39
1024th	71st	u/35L	150th	L	Helen Sloman	1:44:12
1248th	213th	M40	1049th	M	Nick Reed	1:47:24
1923rd	152nd	u/35L	361st	L	Sarah Boyle	1:56:41
1984th	843rd	u/40M	1604th	M	Harsharn Gill	1:57:22
2454th	1004th	u/40M	1902nd	M	David Crosbie	2:04:19
3236th	1195th	u/40M	2266th	M	Andrew Woodward	2:25:11
3334th	411th	u/35L	1026th	L	Freesia Day	2:31:30

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