NWFPAC ‘Michael Page’ Championship 2026 – Race 6: West Cheshire 10 Mile

It was an early start on Sunday as we headed over to Chester for the West Cheshire TEN, the sixth race in the 2026 NWFPAC Championship.

After weeks of glorious sunny mornings, runners were greeted to an overcast sky, light drizzle and brisk winds. Maybe that was the real reason for a number of last minute drop outs but I’m sure a few of us were secretly happy for some cooler conditions.

The race started at Cheshire County Sports Club, a few miles outside of the city. As usual, I’d arrived perfectly in time to pick up my race number and for a (very) quick warm up.

What I hadn’t anticipated was the event team not being able to find my bib number and me not being able to locate my confirmation email with just 6 minutes to go before the gun! Luckily, I managed to get an emergency number sorted and hurried down to the start.

After clambering over a fence (narrowly avoiding kicking Dave in the head!) to get to the front of the starting funnel, I slotted in alongside Tim, Dave, Ben and Steven. I’d never run a 10-mile race before so got a few last minute tips on best way to pace it – Dave’s suggestion was to go out at 5k pace and hang on for as long as possible!

As the gun went, we set off down a scenic country lane surrounded by fields. The front runners sped off into the distance and with that we waved Steven, and the prospect of 20 points, goodbye.

As the West Cheshire TEN combines both a 10 mile and 10 km distance race, we had 6k of ‘out and back’ before joining the 10km race loop. The first 2.5km was a lovely quick downhill and then, as we turned back on ourselves 500m later, it dawned on me that we would be climbing back up that way shortly!

The out and backs are a great way of seeing what’s happening elsewhere on the course and managed to see a few of the NWFPAC runners and got an encouraging high five from Aid!

Given the start was downhill, I knew I’d gone out a bit too quick but turned to see the 1 hour pacer just behind me. I did think he must have been discussing pacing strategies with Dave (as we went through 5km quicker than most of my recent parkruns!) but he assured me that we needed time in the bank as the last 5km was all uphill.

I didn’t realise I’d signed up for a VIP package but somehow ended up with a personal pacemaker as we became cut adrift from all other runners whilst winding through the Cheshire countryside. At one point, I did ask him to be a windbreak for me – which was as close as I’d ever come to knowing how Eliud Kipchoge felt in Breaking2!

It didn’t last long through. Just after mile 4, his shoelace came untied and, although he said he would catch me up, I didn’t ever see him again. Two runners (pacing much more sensibly than me) came past as we reached the halfway point but after that it was a very difficult, lonely, uphill second half of the race with the wind picking up as we criss-crossed over the M53.

I’d always wondered how far I could run in an hour, flat out. Turns out that it’s not quite 10 miles!

The 10k race had set off half an hour after our 10 mile start so there were some good battles up the finishing straight between runners in different events – and certainly bringing out the competitive side of people!

There were some great runs by the NWFPAC team with Steven Henderson finishing 6^th overall in a very impressive 57.17 taking 20 points and first V40, Tim Shaw beating another inconsistent pacer to finish well inside a target time of 70 minutes (and claim second V50) and Emily Kelly crossing the line as the first NWFPAC lady. It was also a high scoring event for Cowgill’s Leading the Herd in the team championships!

Afterwards, we headed up to the clubhouse to warm up and grab a coffee (there were a few celebratory beers being had at 10.30am too!) whilst Megan found a quiet table in the corner to recover, refuel on Haribo and have a long hard think through her life choices!