NWFPAC ‘Michael Page’ Championship 2025 – Race 6: Cheadle Hulme Parkrun

Friday night saw the end of the warm weather of the week as it started to rain, and Saturday morning was damp and grey as I made my way to Cheadle Hulme Parkrun, the sixth race of the NWFPAC championships.

The change in weather, combined with the fact this was described as a course mostly on grass (with a short section of tarmac) meant that kit choice was more confusing than usual. Road shoes or trail shoes?  If trail shoes, studs or lighter tread?  If road shoes, carbon or not?  Singlet or t-shirt?  Probably not full ultra backpack though (Steve?).  This wasn't helped by Dave's cryptic race instructions along the lines of 'road shoes will probably be fine, but I'll leave mine in the car'.  In the end I went for road shoes (with carbon rods, in case you're interested) – a choice made easier by the fact that I meant to also bring trail shoes but then left them by the front door.  Way too much overthinking for a 5k.

The faff continued when I arrived and tried to pay for carparking, failed several times to get the app installed, but was saved by Dave lending me a quid.  Thanks Dave!

Anyway, after a shorter than planned warm up, we all met up at the start of the run on a grassy hill.  The course resembled more of an interesting looking cross-country course than your typical Parkrun, with sections of trail, grass and tight corners.  We ambitiously lined up at the front and headed off full pelt downhill to the first tight corner.  Having looked at the previous few weeks' results, the first-finisher times seemed to range from 18-24 mins – which indicated a hard course (and the average number of attendees is less than 100).  With this knowledge I was determined to not go off too fast, but kept pace not far behind Charles, Mike and Stephen for the first km, which meant I was clearly overdoing it.

After the initial lap of the starting field, the course then consisted of three laps around a larger field on undulating grassy sections, with marked out tight corners.  The leaders soon disappeared (including Ralph who soon sailed past me), it was then a case of grinding it out and counting off each lap whilst trying not to fade too much!  The (very) short tarmac section was welcome relief as I was able to gain a bit more speed (and gaining back a place from someone in cross country spikes, before he promptly overtook me again on the grass).  

The three laps meant you often got see fellow NWFPAC runners going the opposite way (and how much further ahead they were...).  It turns out that the shoe choice was not too bad - a little bit of slipping and rolling but the ground was fairly firm. This would be a great course in winter!

After the three laps, there was final climb back through the first field, and then downhill again to the finish. The finish area gave a great view of the remaining runners climbing the final hill.

Great running everyone – as expected, we dominated the results, with five of us in the top ten and notable podium finishes from Charles and Mike, and PBs on this course of Charles, Mike, Stephen and Josh.

Trail shoes next time?