Stockport 10 Special

Hi folks,

Well I’ve been a bit slow writing this report, but here goes. The official results are here, and my quick results below:

Position Name Time
238 / 624 Andy Shirres 1:16:11

The Stockport 10 is a 10 mile road race round Stockport taking in Offerton, the outskirts of Romiley and Bredbury. With it being held during the run up to Christmas, I wasn’t expecting a good time as my training had been very intermittent and a few more beers than normal had been drunk!

The race started at Woodbank Athletics track (which is a superb facility by the way and the top public sports facility in Stockport in my opinion) and headed out into Offerton. The start is relatively flat and more downhill than uphill.

The first half of the race was relatively uneventful for me as I knew the roads pretty well, however the climb to Romiley after passing the Chadkirk was tough. It was a long fairly steep climb. I was glad to get to the top… or so I thought! On reaching the top, the course took a sharp left to reveal a shorter, but far steeper climb. This really took it out of me.

Bredbury was mainly downhill though and so I managed to pick up on a fair few places after the ordeal of the previous climbs. One last challenge remained however… New Zealand road! This too is a long fairly steep climb and really takes it out of you and makes the last mile a hard slog.

The final stretch was back in Woodbank Park with the finish on the Athletics track. I managed to pick up a bit of speed for the last kilometre or so, and even managed to do a bit of a sprint finish.

After the race was great; I don’t know how Stockport Harriers managed it, but they had loads of “For Goodness Shakes” available for free to the runners (and this is a top recovery drink, that’s not cheap), as well as a fantastic goody bag with a hat for running in cold weather. The club house was even serving some top notch Hot Pot too. A better end to a race I could not imagine :)

Looking back, I may well have held a little too much back in reserve for this race, but I was happy with the result, and it leaves plenty of scope for a better time in 2008. I’d like to try and shave 10 minutes off my time for next year, so I better get some hill training in!

A special mention should go to the race marshals as they did a fantastic job as the busy Offerton road wasn’t closed for this event. The race wouldn’t have been possible without them.

Cheers

Andy