The Manchester 10K Run, and a bit of Jazz

On 31 May 2026, 'Team Owen' took part in the Manchester 10 kilometre race, together with over 38,000 other runners. Owen overcame his difficulties to finish in a personal best of under 1 hour and 5 minutes. Remarkable, as he was hoping to get a time of 1 hour 15 minutes. He was accompanied by Jan, Sue and Paul, who all helped each other to dodge past the 1 hour 15 minute runners with whom they set off.

Here are Sue, Owen and Paul at the finish.

They raised a four figure sum for NSPCC. Donations can still be made here.

Well done, Owen, who is pictured below with his mum, who kindly produced lots of goodies in a bid to preserve Owen and the rest of the team's state of euphoria.

Full results are here. Whilst the running area was crowded, there was plenty of space nearby to linger in Manchester's familiar sunshine.

Next day, the Aire Valley Jazz Band entertained us at Eagley Jazz Club. An excellent evening's entertainment once the band had quickly set up after some of them had been delayed on the M62 motorway.

The  Aire Valley Jazz Band's musicians are:  

Andy Henderson (cornet, vocals and band leader),  Andy Wallis (reeds),  Eugene Farrar [?] (trombone and vocals),  Jim Wright (banjo and vocals), Phil Kampen (bass),  Rod McNamara (brilliant on drums).

Sunday 3 May 2026 - The Mike Dunne Memorial 10 km Run

Mike sadly succumbed to cancer in 2023. He was a stalwart member of Sale Harriers and was committed to helping out in whatever way he could at Wythenshawe Park's Community runs of 2km and 5km held every Sunday at the running track. This was the third Memorial Run and was completed by 195 runners and walkers in perfect conditions

My report on the 2024 event is here, and on the 2025 event, it's here. All my '10km' postings are here.

Sue and I are pictured near the 9 am start.

Off we go. I'm nearly last as usual and have a brief chat with 'Tail Runner' Alison before continuing at a modest pace.

Organiser Paul was on hand to cheer people past the bike track corner.

The course has a couple of sections where slower runners like me meet faster ones who may be 1 to 2 km ahead. I seem to meet the same folk - Paul Lockett, Frank Cordingley, Jan Williams, Tris Pocock, for example, every year. Not so many photos this year as I was battling for position with three fit ladies.

Paul was too fast for me, and I'd have had to wait a couple of minutes for Sue to pass.

Below, Paul Wood was one of only two VM70 runners, whereas there were five of us in the VM75 category. I chatted to Paul afterwards, we may encounter him on a Spunch event.

Mike Curley, one of the VM75 runners excelled himself by finishing in a time of 47:23. Well done Mike and friends.

Afterwards we lingered at length in the courtyard, whilst Jan almost bankrupted himself as coffees were ordered and re-ordered. It won't be his round again for a long time!

Sue and my results are shown below, together with my splits - despite a desire to walk after reaching the 5 km point, I seem to have gone a bit quicker after that (trying to stay ahead of the three fit ladies...)

The full results are here.

That's it for now - after another great (and successful) fundraising event.

Sunday 11 May 2025 - The Alderley Edge Bypass 10K 2025

Whilst enjoying our post run coffee and cake in the courtyard tearoom after the Wythenshawe parkrun on Saturday, Paul and Jeanette mentioned that there were still places available to take part in the annual Alderley Edge Bypass 10K race taking place the following day.

Well, who would turn down the chance to run up and down the hot tarmac of a closed main road on a Sunday morning! I duly entered, and early the following morning the three of us made our way to Alderley Park, to collect our numbers. No 'warming up' was really necessary on the hot May morning.

Another Winston Runner, Alwyn Morgan, posed with Paul and Jeanette.

After a while, we lost and found Paul, before watching the team of pacers make their way into position amongst the 1600 strong field.

As usual, I tried to start near the back, but I wasn't all that successful today.

Looking ahead

Looking back

We set off on time at 9:30, starting down the shady road before reaching the hot sun of the bypass. We turned around at about the 5.5km point, and passed an official photographer at the 6km mark.

Here's his official picture:

I took another couple of pictures before continuing on what appeared to be one long hill to the finish.

We duly assembled with our medals before heading off to P&J's house for some much needed bacon butties.

We were all pleased with our results, especially Paul and Jeanette, who both came second in their respective age groups.

My time of 1:03:06 was just 12 seconds slower than in last week's race, today's course being hillier and hotter.

Alwyn was quite happy with his 'recovering from injury' performance.

The third Winston Runner, Paul Lockett, finished in 49:06 - well done to him - and others from that club were marshalling today.

And that's it - another friendly and well organised running event, with thanks to all who made it happen.

Sunday 4 May 2025 - The Mike Dunne Memorial 10km Run

We were at the athletics track at Wythenshawe Park by soon after 8:30 this morning, for the 10km run in memory of Mike Dunne, a legendary Sale Harrier runner who sadly died of cancer in 2023.

This gave me a great excuse to take it very easy on yesterday's parkrun, on which (pictured below) I spent some time around and behind Owen and Graham, before going ahead to finish the 5km in 37:53. I was in position 423 out of 473 participants. Sue was much quicker. Full results are here.

Community Run organiser, Paul, and his team, have put a great deal of effort into organising today's event, the weather for which was perfect. Paul's briefing lasted for a while.

Many of the participants and marshals are regulars at the Sunday morning 2km and 5km community runs, which take place on some of the paths that were used today. However, the 10km route uses more of the park to complete two interlinked circuits on each 5km lap.

Starting very slowly, after a while I encountered runners coming from the other direction on the path that links the two loops. I missed taking photos of the leaders but some of the quicker runners passed from the other direction whilst I was on this section.

Damian Bowman - 184 - position 25

Mike Walsh - 42 - position 23

Ian Dodds - 122 - position 28

Paul Lockett - 61 - position 34

Tommy Bancroft - 93 - position 41

Tristan Pocock - 132 - position 40

The course was very well marshalled by a large team of volunteers - far more than those needed for the usual two lap 5km course - hence this course is not practicable as a regular route due to the need for so many marshals. Bottom Bridge, pictured below, is handled in unfamiliar directions and marks the start of the short section where I was meeting faster runners who had completed the far loop twice.

David Pearson - 125 - position 17

Mike Walsh - again

I'm catching up with folk now, my second 5km being three minutes quicker than my first 5km.

Tristan, one of the Wythenshawe parkrun run directors, again

Frank Cordingley flew past in the opposite direction. He finished a little ahead of Sue, who must have gone through here just after I had left this 'sociable' section.

After passing a dozen or so folk, I encouraged Iain Weatherall to stay with me and we ran together for the last 2km at a respectable 6 minute kilometre pace.

I finished in 1:02:54 in position 129 out of the 168 participants. 
Sue finished in 49:59 in position 56, first in her age group.

Full results should be here, and ours are below the picture of Sue running.

One day I'll work out how to take a decent selfie!

Nice wooden medals. All in all an excellent event. I do hope it will continue, hopefully with greater numbers. It's a cheap event to enter, so I suspect it's a marketing challenge regarding numbers.

Anyway, congratulations to Paul and his huge team of volunteers for organising a great event in memory of a running legend.