4 to 7 June 2026 - Four Runs

Thursday 4 June - Spunch Sale

With Sue at a spa day with Jenny, this was a solo effort for me, shown above, happily smiling before the start at Trafford Metroviks, a large sports ground hidden away between Glebelands Road and the River Mersey.

I set off soon after 5pm on a quick loop using good paths beside the river between Sale and Stretford.

No more pictures were taken until the end, after an annoying navigational mishap shortly after meeting Alison Pearson, who was enjoying her inaugural Spunch with running club friends.

Michelle was her usual jolly self at Control, where I contrived to sign in with fewer points than any of the other two hour (120) participants.

Click on the image for a better version

My route is shown below. The green 'start' marker should be next to the red finishing one (I forgot to turn on the recording until five minutes after starting). The long erroneous diversion to Moss Lane at the bottom of my route rewarded me with 30 penalty points and at least four missed Spunch points, so I should have scored at least 670 but for that error.

Never mind, there was cake at the end, and a huge chicken burger, and Sue turned up to encourage me.

Saturday 6 June - Wythenshawe parkrun #669

After a wet start, the sun nearly appeared for 368 runners over the 5km course. Sue and I both took it easy, Sue finishing in 27:46 (position 147) and me in 44:13 (position 348).

RD Andy addresses the masses

Splish splosh!

Steve Thurston, volunteer marshal at 'Far Bridge'

Backmarkers approaching Far Bridge

A hard earned finish...

We lingered in the Courtyard Café at length, during which time Paul and Jeanette were persuaded to join us on the next event.

Saturday 6 June - Spunch - Woodbank and Goyt

We assembled soon after 11:30 at the Strawberry Gardens pub in Offerton, where I think in bygone days we used to adjourn for liquid refreshments from Dave and Robert Kitto's nearby business, Dartmouth Performance Clothing Limited. At the time a competitor of Sprayway. I still use their balaclava.

Today, Paul and Jeanette had nipped home for supplies, Rufus had emerged from a parkrun sulk, and Alistair Pooler turned up to loosen up for a marathon around Coniston Water that would see him having to rise the following morning at around 4am.

The sun came out and despite a bit of teething trouble with the Maprun app, and a failure to pay through SiEntries ('never mind'), Paul and Jeanette at least got one of their phones with the app on it working for most of the two hour duration of our run/walk around Woodbank and the Goyt valley.

It was muddy in places and point 47 had us flummoxed for a while, but with no serious mishaps we had an enjoyable outing and failed to match the last place that I had managed in Sale two days earlier..

The pictures speak for themselves.

We finished after visiting 36 Spunch points in the allocated two hours, with a couple of minites in hand. My planned route was achieved, with one short cut that allowed us to avoid a last minute rush.

The results for the two hour (120) participants are shown above - we were very happy with our result that included novices and a geriatric.

Here's the Garmin Connect version of our route, which basically comprised three anti clockwise loops.

Sunday 7 June - Wythenshawe Community Run

Whilst Alistair was running around Coniston's marathon course in just under seven hours, I popped along to Wythenshawe for the 5km Community Run. I stayed at the back as usual, and enjoyed a long chat with Tom Lavin.

My quickest 5km of the week, albeit in a modest time of 38:29.