AAA & UKA Half Marathon Champs., Wilmslow
“ And here comes yet another Belgrave Harrier ...”
AAA silver and B Team 7th!
Who says it always rains in Manchester! Beautiful springtime conditions saw a huge field of over 3000 leave Wilmslow Rugby Football Club and set out on the roads of Cheshire to contest the National Half Marathon Championship. As title holders we had hoped to win again but both Paul Evans and Kassa Tadesse, key men in the 2002 team, were not in the best of shape and were unable to turn out. But with Al Stewart and Will Cockerell known to be in good form we still hoped to sneak a set of medals – and did the boys do us proud!
Right: Getting ready for the off - Warren Lynch, Al Stewart, Paul Freary, Knut Hegvold and Will Cockerell.
Unfortunately it was not a spectator’s course so we were totally unaware of our team’s progress throughout the event, the only information relayed being the fact that Kenya’s Julius Kibet was “on” for a course record. However, we later learned that it was Paul Freary, among our men, who took the initiative, with Will Cockerell and Al Stewart chasing him hard. Five miles came up in 25:19 for Will – a personal record by over a minute – and although a little startled, he reminded himself that he was, after all, shooting for a sub-67 run. Al Stewart was very close behind, aiming for a time under 68, while Richard Ward was cruising and feeling at ease in his first “real” distance race. Not so comfortable was Roger Alsop who had completed yet another very heavy week of training for his main aim this spring – the London Marathon.
Left: 41 seconds are gone and there's a solid phalanx of claret and gold behind the lead car.
Photo by Keith Parkinson
At ten miles Paul Freary was beginning to crumble – a period of illness in February had set back his training a little – and now it was Will leading the claret and gold charge, three and a half minutes inside his previous best for ten miles.
And so to the finish – and what excitement for our supporters as they saw three Belgrave men heading for the line. Al Stewart kept Will under pressure until the very end, only six seconds separating them as they went under the gantry and both of them way inside their prior bests. Richard Ward, whose previous race was an indoor 800m two weeks earlier and whose longest outing before today had been at 10 km, had fully intended to step up the pace as the end neared but learned a lot about distance racing when he found that it didn’t necessarily work like that! Roger was needlessly disappointed with his own run while Knut, with a dodgy calf muscle, was pleased to come through unscathed – and pick up third veterans prize. Warren Lynch removed 30 seconds from his best time while Lloyd Catley was heartened to be greeted by the announcer’s “ … and here comes yet another Belgrave Harrier …”
The finish area was like a Belgrave reunion as Lee Hurst (now unattached) was obviously back to peak fitness to place 18th in 1:06:31, Rick Hayman (now Sale) was 31st in 1:09:34 … and 1984th was Chris Fairfield (now East Cheshire Harriers) 1:55:51 and 12th M65.
In fact it was long-time Belgravian Chris Fairfield that cost us the “golds”. A couple of seasons ago he came across one Andy Jones who had run 3 hours 15 for the marathon on no training whatsoever and encouraged him to train, take up the sport – and subsequently join Salford (he ran 1:04:41 for 6th).
1 J.Kibet (Kenya) 1:02:23; 2 I.Hudspith (Morpeth) 63:32; 3 I.Arusei (Kenya) 1:03:53; 22 W.Cockerell 1:06:48; 23 A.Stewart 1:06:54; 26 P.Freary 1:07:32; 41 R.Ward 1:10:38; 45 R.Alsop 1:11:01; 50 K.Hegvold (M40) 1:12:06; 89 W.Lynch 1:15:06; 100 L.Catley 1:16:06; 3123 finished.
Teams: AAA & UKA Champs. 3 to score 1 Salford 3:20:20; 2 Belgrave 3:31:14; 3 Tipton 3:22:25; 7 Belgrave ‘B’ 3:33:45; 20 teams closed in.
Inter-Counties Champs. 4 to score 1 Greater Manchester 22; 2 Leicestershire 71 ; 3 Surrey (Belgrave) 86; 9 teams closed in.
Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.