Race 1 – Wilmslow 10k – 27th November 2022

After a summer of running the trail races of the Staffs Moorland Summer Series a friend convinced me to enter the Wilmslow 10k in November. Known as a fast flat course I thought it would be a good opportunity to see how things were progressing so all intentions were to train well and give it a good go.

Unfortunately, a few personal circumstances caused a bit of refocus and a week or so before the race, although I was running pretty well, the now familiar feeling of unpreparedness entered the thought process.

On the Friday before the race I had a routine chiropractor appointment (I will blog about chiropractic medicine at a later date) and he had to do some manipulation on my right ankle which wasn’t ideal race prep either.

However, on the Sunday morning I was kindly given a lift to the race with some friends and we turned up in Wilmslow in plenty of time on a cool, dry morning. The number collection was extremely efficient, the facilities to prepare for the race were excellent and it was good to see familiar faces as we gathered with the masses at the start.

I stood on the start line with a sore ankle, feeling unprepared and ready to just give it a go but with no expectations.

I am not going to bore you with the race details but I was informed it was a fast flattish 5k start with some inclines in the 2nd 5k – for any of you who have ran around Stone or done the FF10 I am not sure any of the inclines would feature on the top 100 hills chart, which in a way is good as it means you can find a constant pace but at the same time there is no recovery on any slight downhills.

So I tried to find a steady pace and maintain it……according to Garmin my mile splits were 6:39, 6:39, 6:39, 6:41, 6:40, 6:39…the last 400 metres I did speed up a little bit (I think the 6:41 must have been were the hill was?!). Now I do work on practicing pacing during my coaching sessions and runs but nothing that could account for that……I crossed the line in 41:14 which was a 30+ second PB for me so although I wasn’t expecting anything I was of course very please with the result and it gives me something to focus on in 2023. 

(I was still almost 5 minutes behind the others who I shared the car journey with…..maybe closer next time).

So in summary Wilmslow is definitely a place to go for a fast flat PB opportunity, it is very well organised, good route, no cars, nice crowds and plenty of places to get a good coffee afterwards – already entered the Summer and Winter race for 2023 !

You think it would be a good place to sign off the year wouldn’t you……