Today
myself and Dennis set off at 12.15 from Sandbach to Wrexham to do the
10 mile race. Dennis’s sat nav decided to take us on a magical mystery
tour and I saw some areas of Nantwich that I had never seen before. Soon
we saw the sign for Wrexham so we knew it was taking us in the right
direction. !
An hour later we arrived at the club house on the Wrexham Industrial Estate. The weather was a bit overcast with a slight drizzle and a bit of a wind so I decided it was long sleeves today. Just as we were crossing the car park a man had stopped to talk to a fellow runner who had asked him what the course was like, he was concerned that there would be hills in it and the man answered him that if he wanted hills he had to go in that direction and swung his arm out, just then his hand connected with my face. Wow did I have a fat lip. He grabbed me and was so apologetic I thought he was going to hug me. We eventually got into the club house to pick up our numbers only to find out that they had not received my entry form or cheque. No fear the race organiser said, I believe you sent it in and he gave me No.83. We soon found out that the course was two loops of five miles and that it was extremely flat.
After
a bit of a warm up we bumped into Kay Masters who had also signed up to
do the race. On the start line we looked around and noticed that
there was a lot of rather thin looking runners who were part of the
Welsh Athletics Club and that this race was one of the “grand prix”
series. So… my race plan was just to get round it today. Dennis wanted
to try for 1.30. The field was about 90 or so runners. There was no gun
start or 1, 2, 3 , … it was “oops we are off now”..
The first mile
was very flat and we went through it in a 8.05. I managed to stay with
Dennis for about 2 miles but after Thursday’s hilly race my thighs were
screaming out in pain, so I though flaming norah I feel my age today so
let’s just finish the course. It was a road race which more or less
was a five mile circuit of the industrial estate. Dennis was in front
of me this time and as long as I had him in my sight my legs managed to
go one in front of the other. At 7 miles I passed a Thai lady who said
“ good running lady”, now I wasn’t sure whether this elderly lady was
really good and up front, or if she was still on the first 4 miles of
the first lap ( I think it may have been the latter). When I got to 8
miles I could not see Dennis at all, there was a girl in the distance
behind me and for nearly 2 miles I was running on my own. There was a
cross wind but at around 9 miles the wind got behind me and managed to
give me a bit of a push. It was then that the heavens opened up and it
poured to the sounds of black thunder.
At about 200 yards to go the
runner behind me caught up with me and I only just saw Dennis on the
finishing line. I did 1.37 and Dennis did 1.35 . Although flat it was a
fairly boring course but hey ho it did kill some time on a Saturday
afternoon. Now I am off to the pub tonight for a well deserved drink.
More information on the Wrexham AC website.
Liz and Dennis
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