Macclesfield Half - 2018 NWFPAC Championship race 7

This is one of my favourite races (helped by the fact that it’s on my doorstep). It has a good combination of hill climbs, long downhill sections, the beautiful Cheshire countryside (with views of the Jodrell Bank telescope) and the start and finish on an athletics track – what’s not to like? The weather was perfect – dry and cool, and the sun even came out for most of the race – which was a nice surprise as an earlier forecast was for torrential rain.

7 of us turned out to take on the challenge of this half marathon. I saw Byron and Charlie before and after the race, and John at the finish line, but didn’t spot Spencer, Adrian or Rob, sorry guys.

After Byron had criticised me for not bringing anyone with me to the Whalley Waltz earlier in the year, I made up for it by bringing the wife, kids, mother-in-law, sister-in-law and niece and nephew, and they made great support team! My kids also did the 2k fun run so they weren’t too bored!

As mentioned, the race starts on the athletics track, and then is mainly downhill for about the first 6k, which encourages a very quick start – I started off far too quickly, although was secretly quite pleased to be ahead of Byron for about 30 seconds.

After passing out of Macclesfield and into Prestbury (past all the footballer’s mansions), the route starts the first big climb up towards Hare Hill. At that point Byron and Charlie started to disappear out of sight.

From the top the route then drops back down, with great views across the Cheshire Plain. The route down is interspersed with a few climbs so it’s not downhill all the way back to Macclesfield, including one big climb at the end through Whirley. I kept overtaking a guy from Chorlton Runners on the hills up and he’d charge past me on the downhill sections (frustratingly beating me to the end) – I really need to work on downhill speed!

From the top of last hill there is then about 2k of downhill back to the athletics track and the finish line. It’s a great atmosphere at the end and the final straight forces tired legs into one last sprint, to the applause from the crowd.

A great race was had by all with some fast half marathon times (and some PBs I think?), especially considering the hilly nature of the course – the results are below.

We managed to grab this post-race photo of me, Byron and John. Not quite sure where Charlie disappeared to!

Finally if anyone needs further encouragement to come and run this next year, there’s a can of beer handed out at the end (Byron somehow got two).