MANCHESTER MARATHON POSTSCRIPT

The daily running has been hard this week. Not hard because of any real pace. Just hard work.  I had put the tiredness down to reaquainting myself with  developments in the FASTRAX print room which has seen me standing   printing for several hours each day.  With a staff retirement ,a  necessary exercise; one, to ensure that the vest ordered continued to flow out and two , so that I am able to teach new recruits how to cope with the orders in turn.   Printing your club vests is often more difficult than you night imagine.
 So standing for several hours a day,  has been a factor . However, when I measured how far I had run in supporting  Sally Malir's superb GREATER MANCHESTER MARATHON , I found that it was 18  miles in total!  Hardly surprising the miles since have been somewhat laboured.

 Going back to Sunday the running forums have been awash with comments about the race.  Many have praised the marshals, many from my own club Sale Harriers, and the people of south Manchester who not only gave vocal support but as the day's cold, very wet conditions continued throughout the morning came out to give much needed comfort, shelter and physical support to so many runners struggling from half way.
 But the majority have mentioned the inefficiency of the bag retrieval system.  In short, it was "back to front" which meant that as the faster runners entered the tent asking the cadets for their bags which couldn't be found, the queue then developed OUTSIDE the tent.  Now on a warm, spring morning this meant not have been so bad but to have run 26.2 miles and then have to queue with just a "space blanket" for warmth was not welcomed by the runners. Many perhaps not unexpectedly , let's just say, became quite inpatient so much so that I am told the army cadets deserted their posts or were told to retire to leave a free for all!
 That aside, once I had ensured she did not suffer hyperthermia, Sally's day went  very well.  By coincidence, we were back in Longford Park, Stretford, on Tuesday night with Sal's daughter, Georgia. (She ran 10:44 for the 3K as a season opener) A comment was made to me that Sally " lost it" in the second half!   His  broken nose is mending nicely!
  Far from "losing it"  her pace per mile, targeted at 7.15, never drifted to over 8.00, she overtook  65 men from the midway point and  3 women to come through from 5th to 2nd within yards of  the line.  Not exactly "losing it".  Obviously begs the question  though, , what time would she have run in favourable conditions!!
  A quick scan of the top 100 in the race shows that all "lost" several minutes over the second half.  The rain was bad enough; but it was the low 4 degrees and wind chill that did the damage.  Given the weather forecast  it suggested it really would be a marathon of winter conditions, I am so surprised that so many elected to race in just vest and shorts( see pic above).
 Better weather today though.  Bright blue skies over Wharfedale. Over a week since the Salford 5K and time finally to try to inject a bit of pace back into the old legs with a track session!  Bring it on.