Poynton Village 10k – ‘Michael Page’ NWFPAC 2019 Championship – Race #2

If it wasn’t for an open discussion in December last year Mr Simmons would have had us all travelling an hour down South to Cheadle (Staffordshire) rather than Cheadle/Poynton (Cheshire) area. Having realised this faux pas the Poynton 10k was added into the 2019 race series.

Those living in and around Poynton know that this race fills up quickly so it was a strategic decision by a few locals to enter early to secure places perhaps to the detriment of other non-local NWFPAC people once the race was fill. Caveat Emptor as they say!

I don’t know about my fellow runners but despite having about 40 running tops in my wardrobe (all freebies from past races) I couldn’t decide which was right to wear: too tight, too baggy, too bright for the muddy course, long sleeves or short, thermal?

Whatever the decision it was never going to be right ... we had four seasons in one race. Waiting at the start line with 5 minutes to go it started to hail. Proper hail. The upside is that at least it bounces off you. I noticed that one of the ladies in front of me at the start line happened to be wearing pearl earrings but after a few minutes of hail it was hard to tell the pearls from the hailstones in her hair. The other seasons involved some rain, wind and sunshine with lots of mud, mud, mud. Oooooo, what to wear?

Anyhow, the race; this was an all-male NWFPAC affair – probably because the women had more sense. We might well have been the Dad’s Army team as at least three were injured and jogging round: David Simmons (hammy), Richard Lamb (pesky calf) and Philip Warburton (capable of much faster).

I managed to achieve excellent value for money for the race entry fee as not only was it a race within a race for NWFPAC but it also happened to be in the Stockport Harriers race series too so three for the price of one!

Well run all, and Happy St Patrick’s Day.