We've taken part in this very jolly event three times before - reports are here.
Today we joined the entry list of about 1500 runners, with a number of friends from Wythenshawe parkrun and elsewhere, travelling with Cary and picking up Charley en route to Knutsford.
The others got lost in the crowd, but I managed to stick with Jan, Paul, Laura and Sue at the start.
It looks from the following photo as if we were near the back, but we were actually not too far from the front, as we queued up to start.
The forecast had been for rain, otherwise I would have worn my Xmas tree outfit, which really isn't suitable for wet weather. Starting with Jan was great, as I know I can just about match his pace over 5 km. We started at 5 minute km pace, rather faster than in the past, and by the time we'd got into the third kilometre the field was spreading out and we'd passed most of the slower folk who'd hampered us by setting off slowly in front of us. Meanwhile Laura and Paul had both flown past me - Paul in a relentless and ultimately futile pursuit of his daughter, and Jan steadily moved to about 200 metres ahead of me.
This cross country course was wet and muddy - very slithery in places, but wearing the Salomon Speed Cross shoes alleviated a lot of the slitheryness. There was a ten metre knee deep water splash that saw off the benefit of our waterproof socks, which filled with water that then stayed within the socks!
Meanwhile, Cary and Charley were further behind, and Charley - a trained doctor - had her race ruined when someone fell and badly broke their ankle, clearly needing emergency medical treatment, not far from the start. By the time she got going again, the tail runner had passed and she was obliged to take a short cut to regain the main field of runners. Very disappointing for her.
I was going steadily and able to chat to a few people whilst slowly getting back to Jan, whose distinctive gait was a good target. I managed to pass him near the end, and I got this picture of him at the finish.
Sue came in just behind us, as did Alastair, who took the next picture.
Here's one I took, with Al in it.
The TDL events results system is very good, with a text message arriving immediately after the finish, showing one's time and providing a link to the results website.
Much to my amazement it seemed I had come first in my age category. By 8 minutes! Despite the muddy conditions, I managed a time of 51.47 for the 10 km. They gave me a small trophy, the first jogging award I've ever got. They tried to tell me it was for 'running', but I know the runners out there (where were you?) would go much faster than that...
Thanks to Laura for the next picture, with Mr Roberts, the boss of main sponsor Roberts Bakeries. (The 'goodie' bag contained, as usual a loaf of bread and various other bread related products that we can smell every time we go past the bakery on the A556 near Northwich.)
And here's the proof! Click on the image to see it properly.
Laura's efforts to hold off her dad saw her finishing in 49.17, coming 12th out of 331 in her FOPEN class. Well done - she's a proper runner!
Paul took 49.33 and finished 4th out of 27 in the MV60 class.
Jan took 52.32 to come 21st out of 97 in his MV45 class.
Sue shrugged off a hip injury, taking 57.55 and coming 9th out of 116 in the FV50 class.
Cary took 1.02.08 and came 16th out of 27 in his MV60 class.
It was warm enough to mill around in the Youth Club hall for an hour or more at the end, socialising with many other people we knew who were at the event. It was great to see you all. All in all a brilliant event, and thanks must go to the huge number of volunteers involved in the organisation - it really is appreciated.
I now regret not wearing the tree outfit. It would have made for an amusing image going up to receive the MV70 award, as it wouldn't have slowed me down by as much as 8 minutes.
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