NWFPAC ‘Michael Page’ Championship 2025 – Race 7: Altrincham 10k

Runners World magazine recommends complete rest of at least a week after a marathon and then only light exercise, with some experts recommending longer than that (www.runnersworld.com/training/a62787655/how-long-to-rest-after-marathon/).  But the pull of a NWFPAC race and specifically the lure of taking points off Dave is far too strong to resist.

And so it was I begrudgingly dragged my still jetlagged body out of bed for a late dash to Altrincham.

The great thing about travelling abroad to do organised races is that it does rather force you to be there on time.  In Sydney I collected my number from the expo and had it neatly pinned on my vest 3 days before big day.  Seven days later I find myself speeding towards Altrincham, trying to pin my number to my t-shirt on the way – this is not the recommended approach, especially when you risk piercing nipples that are still sore from being chaffed for 26 miles (as an aside, I’ve tried everything, Vaseline, nipple guards, more expensive vests … I’d welcome any tips to stop my otherwise useless nipples from bleeding during marathons!).

I knew I was late when I saw my teammate Nicola merrily jogging to the start as I arrived to look for a parking space.  As it was a Sunday, the gods were smiling on me and a free space presented itself to me only a few hundred yards from the start.  Regrettably, I had no time for a bathroom break (and I definitely didn’t need to pee for the first half of the race), but I had pulled back enough time on the satnav guide to enjoy a relatively steady jog to the start.

I decided not to jump in right at the front, so I wandered down the barrier until I saw Steve Hughes and hopped over to say hello.  That’s when I realised I’d been robbed of my race strategy.  My plan of shadowing Dave for 9k and then racing him over the last k was scuppered when I saw him smiling on the wrong side of the barriers still in his NWFPAC hoodie.

Now what?

Steve can run anything between 40 and 60 minutes, but given he’s normally injured I thought he might be going steady.

Then I saw Peter, fresh from his 22 mile run on Friday as he gears up for Chicago.  Peter was targeting 40 minutes.  I didn’t like the sound of this, but I needed some sort of target, so I figured I’d give it a go, I could always bow out gracefully if I couldn’t keep up on tired legs (did I mention I ran a marathon last week?)

Loosely following the 40 minute pacer (who helpfully went through the first kilometre is a little over 3:30), the course meandered uphill out of the town centre, with generous support all along the course.  The second kilometre was fairly flat but the third kilometre was uphill, into a headwind, which saw the pacer disappear out of sight (I’d love to know their finishing time).

Somewhere between 4 and 5k in the rolling countryside Mike Ginn strolled up alongside me, bemoaning his bad back and stopping for a quick chat between speeding off in a hapless pursuit of the first two steps on the podium in the shape of Steven Henderson (12^th overall in a little over 34 minutes) and Stephen Grice (47^th overall in sub 37 minutes).  Last week I briefly raced Eliud Kipchoge (true he was 10km ahead on the course when I saw him – but we were in the same race, 150 yards apart, running in the same direction – it counts!!), I doubt he could have caught Steven over 6k with that much of a head start.

In a previous race report I’ve explained that my 10k “strategy” is loosely to run for 3k to set a pace, hang on for the next 4k, and then dig in for the last 3k.  I’m now into that middle section with no one in my sights and still expecting, nay waiting, for Peter to come past me, and conscious that on tired legs I must be getting slower.

Once you get to the last 3k it gets a bit easier to hang-on and manage the effort/ pain to the finish.  I still expected Peter to have me in his sights, but I wanted to make sure he’d have to earn the “valuable” point.  At this stage I had started to reel in a couple of people I’d recognised as trying to hang with the 40 minute pacer, so he must have made them push too hard as well.

8k gone, do my eyes deceive me, I’m catching back up to Mike Ginn.  Dilemma time.  When fit, Mike is a LOT faster than me.  I was tempted to adopt my “Dave strategy” with him, tuck in behind, not let on that I’m there, and see if I can outsprint him in the last 400m.  There are a least two problems with this, Peter would be getting closer, and I’m not likely to be faster than Mike in a sprint.  The third problem was that I wasn’t a fan of the pain in plan B either, run past Mike with enough false confidence that he decides his back is too sore and gives up.

Now, I wouldn’t go as far as to call Mike a liar, but after I managed to crank the pace up a little bit (undoubtedly not by much as it hurt), Mike said “it’s fine, I’ll let you have”.  However, the heavy footsteps that followed me for another 300m told me that he wasn’t giving up immediately or easily.

Then the thud of his steps quietened … I had a gap … we’re in the last kilometre … 800m to go … 600m to go … I’ve burnt all my matches … the crowd has got deeper, and louder … I might actually pull this off … where’s the f’n finish line … I can hear footsteps on my shoulder, who’s this – thankfully not Mike, or Peter … don’t turn round, that will give them an extra boost … who put this steep bridge here … pick someone in front of you to race, focus on them and not what might be hunting you down … there’s the line … push, push, push … done, can I stop moving my legs now?!?!!

Shout outs to Ben, Natalie, Matt and Alex all scoring good points on debut!  Natalie also gets the prize for snaffling the best freebie with the Brazilian Bum Bum cream whilst we were all pleased with gummie vitamins.  Also to Josh Nelson, who cruised round in a little over 51 minutes to put himself into a strong position in the Athlete of Steel table!

Special mention also to Matt Klemperer, channelling his inner Brett Clement (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43t0qEN_yZw) and running under an alias just to give Dave more of a challenge to find his result!

All in all, a great event, well attended, well supported and well organised, and the post run coffee and bacon butty in the market were top notch too!