ALISON TROPHY 15 KILOMETRES, MARCH 7th
Dave Evans reports:
It was clear right from the start that Nigel Shaw had victory in mind and his pace from the off left his colleagues “in the dust”. The opening mile of the race takes heel toeing aspirants on a downhill trajectory initially before a cruel uphill section which tends to knock the stuffing out of the sails. Neither of these features troubled the leader as he coasted through the mile checkpoint in a swift 10 minutes 20 seconds, 81 seconds ahead of the nearest pursuer.
The main body of the competitors are used to walking in sight of each other so pacing is not a problem. As the field passed the 3.4 mile point there was just over 8 1/2 minutes between the leader and the sweeper.
Greg Smith has overcome a number of physical problems of late so his second position at this juncture was enlightening and pleasing. With a sub 5 hour 50k in his past locker the return to “racing” was very satisfying.
As the race progressed fortunes changed and leading walkers lost rhythm and “also walks” regained their composure and made good progress forward.
The weather was relatively cold although most pedestrians were not unsettled by it. Nigel claimed another first place and was less than 7 seconds away from winning the handicap which was extremely close with 4 walkers closing in inside 38 seconds.
SCRATCH
1. Nigel Shaw 100 mins 08(10:20/36:31/62:33)1 mile/3.4 miles/5.8 miles
2. Greg Smith 110 mins 06(11:41/40:16/69:13)
3. Phil McCullagh 115 mins 39(12:37/42:31/72:16)
4. Roy Gunnett 117 mins 01(11:44/41:56/63:39)
5. Sailash Shah 117 mins 48(12:03/41:26/71:39)
6 Joe Hardy 121 mins 20(12:47/45:07)
6.8 miles
1. Glyn Jones 83:16(11:59/41:19/70:48)
2. Pat Evans 85 mins 22(12:33/42:34/72:35)
HANDICAP
1. Roy Gunnett 100:01
2. Greg Smith 100:06
3. Nigel Shaw 100:08
4. Phil McCullagh 100:39
5. Joe Hardy 101:20
6. Sailash Shah 101:48
AGE-GRADED
- Joe Hardy 77.42%
- Roy Gunnett 75.05%
- Greg Smith 74.05%
- Nigel Shaw 72.17%
- Phil McCullagh 66.10%
- Sailash Shah 60.12%
Despite efforts to twist my arm there will not be a prize for pointing out the difference between the two photos of the post-race gathering of these Lancashire stalwarts.
As ever thanks to Greg, Dave and Roy for the images.
STOP PRESS
Message from Roy Gunnett
The date of the Macclesfield Shield 10 mile race has been changed from Saturday April 4th to Saturday April 18th. I have confirmed this new date with Marshall Barnard.
The reason for this change is because a number of members could not make the Easter April 4th date as they have family or other commitments over Easter. There was also a concern there might be heavy Easter traffic on this date. April 11th was discounted as it is Grand National day.
I will repeat and confirm this change in a future post.
Lancashire Walking Club : Health The First Wealth 