On Sunday 22 June, I took myself off to my hometown of Burnley for the Pennine Lancashire 10K the event is organised by Run For All. Firstly, hats off to the event organisers. The course was fantastic – very hard, with a mixture of road and trail, and took me through places I hadn’t been for some time, including the historical Towneley Hall. The course started and finished on Manchester Road in the town centre. I mean, everyone loves to finish a 10K race uphill, don’t they?
The night before the race, I travelled over from my home in Preston to stay with my friends, Dave and Trish. Trish was also running in the 10K, her first ever event.
Bright-eyed and bushy tailed the following morning, we travelled the short distance to the town centre. I was excited and slightly nervous, even though I wasn’t treating it as a race, more as fast-ish training run, and had planned to double back once I had finished to run in with Trish and give her some support as it was a sweltering day in Burnley, which are few and far between in such northern towns.
I was towards the front of the pack at the start. I was happy with my pace for the first two miles, then it all came flooding back to me how undulating Burnley is. We headed off the road, through a park and towards Rowley, which took us off road and uphill for quite a fair distance. We emerged from the foliage a couple of miles later into a pub car park near Worsthorne. From there, we dropped down into Towneley Park, which was a relief as this meant we were heading downhill. I managed to get a good pace from here on in and finish a hard undulating race in 56th place out of 2,500 in a time of 41:50. I was pretty happy with this as I hadn’t really done much in the way of intervals/threshold training.
I then doubled back and ran the last half mile with Trish.
The best part of the day for me was having my Dad there at the finish line. I know I am 32 but it is a pretty special way to finish a race. He is so supportive and he has gone through so much with his chemotherapy and cancer treatment, so it was great that he made the effort to come see me run. He has been to a few of my races so I thought that if anyone deserved a medal, it was my Dad, this being our hometown and the first time that I have competed in the area since running for Pendle AC as a 16-year-old, before joining the Army at 17. So as I was presented with my goody bag, T-shirt and medal, I made a beeline to where my Dad was standing, gave him a hug and presented him with his medal. This made his day and also made mine.
I will be back to run the Pennine Lancashire 10K again next year. This is definitely one of the best organised events I have been to and after hearing that the event organisers of the doomed Sheffield half marathon have gone to the wall, maybe Run For All could take the event over next year!
Away from running, on 3 August I am cycling 50 miles in a charity bike ride. Unfortunately my girlfriend’s uncle passed away last year, having suffered a heart attack. As a result one, of her family members embarked on a mammoth 1,547-mile bike ride on Saturday from Rome to Wakefield and quite a few of us are cycling the last 50 miles, all in aid of Stuart Thompson and the British Heart Foundation.
I know Wakefield hasn’t got the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, and it’s not quite team SKY, and it’s not quite the finish to the Tour De France, but it will still be pretty special and a great end to a fantastic journey. I decided to do this because Vicky is so supportive of my running, so I will return the favour and support her for her 50-mile bike ride. Plus, it’s a great cause.
Thanks for reading.
Ant
