"Go On Dad Go On!"

As it's a busy week of racing again I am dropping in a midweek update to report on yesterday's Shutlingsloe Fell Race which was run as part of the Wildboarclough Rose Queen Fete. This traditional villlage event for once had the benefit of great weather to attract the Bank Holiday Monday crowds, whilst the race itself with its field of over 130 runners was the biggest for many years.

Although the race is only just over 3k in length it is run from Crag Hall, the home of Lord Derby and rises over 1300ft straight up Shutlingsloe, known locally as "The Matterhorn of Cheshire" and then straight back down again! Having run this race most years for the last thirty I know the course pretty well but it never gets any easier!

It starts with a fast start dropping straight into the valley followed by a river crossing, hands on knees for the next few minutes, then jog/walk/ rock climb for the next ten. I reached the summit as seen in the photo (with the Hall in the distance below across the valley) in just under 16 minutes (this years winning time by the current record holder was 15.25 and that includes going back down!). After a rapid descent including an almost sheer 50 metre "bottom slide" through Bluebell Wood you are faced with the same knee deep river crossing followed by the last quarter of a mile back up to the finish in the full view of the crowd cheering on from the wall (the finish line) above. This has to probably be one of THE most lung bursting three minutes of the whole year, in a time of 26.46. Far from my quickest ever time & a minute slower than last year but I did beat my local rival by 20 seconds which is really all that matters!

All in all a great afternoon both of running and of celebrating a traditional english country fete. Hopefully I have captured some of the flavour on the video and the encouragement as I climb to the finish is my daughter Sarah!

"Round Table Ramblings"

After a three race week and a block of good solid training this has been a much quieter week with only 3 runs to log. After the White Peak Half it took a couple of easy runs to get the stiffness out of my legs (I'm fifty in six weeks so what do I expect!) However I returned to some speedwork on Wednesday with a sharpish 15 x 300m (30 sec recovery) which was a real shock to the system after a period of more steady running! The latter half of the week has been dominated by work, but tomorrow I return to the fells with my annual visit to the Wildboarclough Village Fete and the Shutlinsloe fell race which I first ran thirty years ago and which rises and falls 505m in just over 3K. So a few days off beforehand is no bad thing. Weekly mileage 14. Annual mileage 519

The highlight of the week however was again not a run but a chance to relive with everyone the White Peak Half on the "Runners Round Table" http://runnersroundtable.com/ . Having only previously been in the "chatroom" for the show rather than calling in, I was rather nervous but it was great to chat to Steve, Gary, Petra, Toni and Phil again and hear how much everyone had enjoyed themselves. Hoefully there will be the opportunity to meet up again at some stage in the future, possibly the weekend of the World Wide Festival of Races in October. To register for this event and become involved go to -

http://worldwidefestivalofraces.com/cgi-bin/home

It's been a glorious sunny Bank Holiday (for once) and after working in the garden I decided to relax with a glass of wine. Hearing everyone talking about PB's the other evening led to me digging out my old log books and compiling a list of my own PB's from down the years. Whilst many of the distances are familiar many runs will mean nothing to anyone but myself! So here goes -

100m - 13.5 secs 17th July 2006 Macclesfield Harriers Club Championships

200m - 25.1 secs 17th July 2006 " " " " (Club Vets record)

400m - 61.0 secs 19th June 2001 Cheshire Track & Field Relays

800m - 2.23.9 9th July 2000 MHAC Club Champs

100m - 3.20.0 MHAC track

1500m- 5.05.3 12th May 2001 Cheshire County Track & Field Championships Warrington

3000m - 10.49 MHAC track

5000m (track) - 20.28.9 July 2003 Oldham

5000m (road) - 18.58 (6.04 miling) 28th April 1999 Timperley

4 miles - 24.40 (6.10 miling) 27th May 1998 Timperley

5 miles - 32.30 3rd September 1997 Altringham

10k - 39.37 22nd August 1998 Birchwood Warrington

10 miles - 68.33 10th December 2001 Stockport

Half Marathon - 86.17 28th March 1999 Wilmslow

20 miles - 2.19.36 8th March 1998 Stafford

Marathon - 3.14 26th April 1998 London

High Jump - 1m 42 18th September 2005 Oldham (Club Vets record)

Long Jump - 4m 43 18th June 2006 MHAC track

Shutlinsloe Fell race (Crag Hall) - 22.35 25th May 1998

Kerridge Climb - 12.58 19th June 1999

Home / Bollington (figure of 8) - 24.51 8th April 2000

Macclesfield Leisure Centre 3 - 18.02 30th July 1999

Town Hall / Lyme Green / Canal / Buxton Road - 28.24 14th July 1999

The Hollins (normal)- 37.05 27th September 1999

The Hollins (reverse) - 37.50 4th April 1997

Home / Middlewood Way / Tesco / Higher Hurdsfield / Canal / MW - 29.46 10th April 1999

Town Hall / Bollington / Adelphi / Canal / Buxton road (figure of 8) - 44.09 15th Nov 2000

Cooper 12 minute endurance test - 2985m 20th February 2007

Reviewing the above I really wish it was 1999 again and not 2009! Or maybe just that I was as fit now as I was then!

"Better By Half"

After months of waiting and following a tough five mile "Rainow Hill Race" in midweek the day finally dawned cool and misty for the long awaited White Peak Swift Half Marathon set on the High Peak Trail in the wonderful Peak National Park.

As well as running what must be one of the most picturesque half marathons around, it was also the chance to meet some of the UK's podcast community who provide many hours of listening and on line viewing to the worldwide running community. It was a great opportunity before the start to say thanks to the runners who put in many hours of work in addition to their normal busy lives to help promote the sport of running.

The photo shows -

Phil Moneypenny the mastermind behind http://www.runcast.tv/ (where you can also find a video of the race as it happened)

Steve Chopper http://amilewithme.podbean.com/

Petra http://petraruns.blogspot.com/

Gary Wall

The person missing is Toni Harvey http://www.drusy.blogspot.com/ host of and regular host/contributor/organiser of the excellent http://runnersroundtable.com/ I think Toni was off warming up. Which is something we should all have been doing!

I think everyone had a good race, the weather held, although at times there was a strong headwind. I ran 1.35.30 (7.18 miling) which is over a minute quicker than earlier in the season at Wilmslow and for a non distance runner these days one I am happy with. I think everyone else was also pleased with their performances, which after negotiating a predominantly uphill first 8 miles you were rewarded some extremely fast downhill miles towards the end. The only person to miss the large arrow sign pointing to the finish with only a mile to go was Steve who added an extra mile to his race and "popped" out of the crowd fifty metres from the finish having taken the unofficial route in!

All in all the second excellent race of the week, well organised and friendly. It is clear why this race fills up so quickly every year. It's now back to the fells for the final two races of the month after which the track takes over for the rest of the summer.

Weekly mileage 26. Annual mileage 505

"Bollington Festival 3 Peaks Race"

May always seems to be the busiest racing month of the year and again this year is no exception. On a glorious but windy afternoon with the Bollington Festival parade
completed, this six mile hill race kicked off a month of local arts & cultural celebrations.

This was my first fell race of the year and although it was only a low key village race (limited to 100 runners) I knew it was going to be a competitive afternoon when the first two athletes I saw signing up in the beer tent were both English international fell and mountain runners! (not that I was going to trouble them though!). Comprising the three highest "peaks" in the area, Kerridge Ridge, White Nancy and Nab Head (the latter two pictured, although I didn't have any time to sight see!) the race climbed over 1200 feet without giving any respite with all the ups being straight up and the downs straight down!

For most of the race the body was pretty much on the red line, something that rarely happens for me in any other form of running apart from cross country and 800m on the track. It was also great to race over the same routes as I regularly train, having run an eleven miler earlier in the week to get a look at most of the course, but even I discovered some new routes off the hills I didn't know existed. I finished in 56.12 which gives you a flavour of how tough the course was and I am still waiting to see what position I finished. A great afternoon's racing and a fantastic finishing crowd welcoming the runners back. Perfect!

Next weekend it's the High Peak Swift Half but before that I am hoping the legs recover in time for Wednesday evening to run the "Rainow 5" one of my favourite annual races covering part of todays hilly course but offering its own challenges!

Weekly mileage 27.

Annual mileage 479.

"Satan's Hollow"

Nigel may "run from the reaper" but my non running highlight of the week has to be my son Matt's rock band's biggest gig to date over the Bank Holiday weekend as a support act at an all day music fest in the centre of Manchester. Rocking a crowd with the satan figure over the mixing desk really added to the atmosphere! It's great to see young people perform with confidence and Matt on the drums had a solid aerobic workout which is just as well as he was meant to be pole vaulting for Macclesfield Harriers in Sheffield! But I let him off in the pursuit of rock greatness. I'm sure Nigel would approve!

Back on the running front with five races coming up in the month of May it was time to get in a solid mixture of track speedwork (inc 6 x 800 with 2 minutes recovery), a 3 mile threshold run and a solid seven mile hill run through langley, interspersed with a couple of recovery runs. All in all in terms of quality it was one of the best training weeks of the year so far.

Next weekend sees race one of the five all of which are off road (including the High Peak Swift Half), a tough hilly five mile hill race around the fringes of the Peak District as an opener to the month long Bollington Festival.

Weekly mileage 26
Annual mileage 452