"Heaton Park"

Well the most eagerly anticipated weekend of the year finally arrived (after the WWFOR of course!), yes it's cross country time. Yesterday I drove some of the team to the first race of the Manchester and District XC League at the tough but fantastic Heaton Park. There was lots of nervous banter as we travelled and parked up, found the club tent and then cheered off the Ladies for their race.

A wet and blustery day turned warm and sunny but with a wicked headwind as 2.30pm and the Senior Men's race came round, and over 200 runners charged off down the first descent of the day. All my old rivals were there and no-one was giving anything away about their form! Three two mile laps were a real shock to the system and whatever training you do you can never truely replicate the pain of wanting to stop but knowing that a rival could be right behind! In fact I caught a glimpse of my nemesis Jack from Salford Harriers (who I spend the summer hanging on to in track 3.000m races) at the start of the final lap and had to work hard right to the final half mile climb to the finish to hold him off by nineteen seconds & three places. I'm not competitve but one nil to me!

The full results haven't been posted as i write this and without any photos either the only one I could find is one of Oasis who made a triumphant return to play a huge gig at the Park in the summer!

Next weeks race was to have been as part of the Club team for the English National XC Relays in Mansfield, but based on yesterday's performance I know I have missed out on a place by twenty seconds. So instead I am going to take a trip into the hills to run the famous "Dovedale Dash" in Derbyshire, a race I have always meant to run but have never got round to.

Annual mileage 1020

"The Dream Inspires"

Well it's been a week now since the annual World Wide Festival of races "Dream Inspires" run in Oxford and I'm still smiling about it. The weekend started off with a fantastic guided tour of Oxford by local runner Sheila and Krister on the Saturday afternoon, followed by an evening meal with Nigel, Steve, Krister and Gary.

I had originally planned to just run the 10k but in the end ran the half marathon (including an extra mile at Abingdon wjth a closure on the Thames towpath!) Picking up the 10k runners we all kept together for the rest of the run which included a circuit of the famous Oxford colleges but an even more famous mile to finish around the Iffley Road track home to the world's first sub four minute mile.

All in all a fantastic event despite the rain and cold, and whilst my times will be personal worsts for both the half and 10k that really wasn't the point and it was certainly the most fun event of the year!

See Phil Moneypenny's brilliant video of the event at -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9DX8voomgE&feature=youtube_gdata

Annual mileage 1003

"Cheshire's Hill Country"

For the second week running the highlight has been focussed around Teggs Nose Country Park, known as Cheshire's hill country whilst the remainder of the county being better known for its flat plain. The country park is managed by one of my teams as part of my role as Leisure & Green Spaces manager for the local authority and it is great to get out and see the outcome of all the hard work put in by the Ranger Service during the year.

After a couple of easy runs during the week the Teggs run turned out to be an 11 mile epic hill run taking in Macclesfield Forest, Shutlingsloe and running several public paths I hadn't followed before (I'm in charge of public rights of way as well!). With some real tough climbing and descending it was quite a shock to the system after a summer of speedwork but the views were fantastic and there may not be many more really bright clear days before the winter sets in. The picture shows the descent towards the forest and Shutlingsloe is the furthest hill on the horizon!

This time next week its the Dream Inspires run in Oxford as part of the World Wide Festival of Races something I'm really lookin forward to.

Annual mileage - 948