Huge thanks to Kev Nicklin for sending us the below report of a slightly unusual race that he competed in last week!
On Friday September 18th, I completed a race called the “Phoenix Manchester Friday Firecracker”. The race is not a usual race, as it’s not based on time, but on distance completed in the 7-hour cut off. 42 brave runners started at 8:30am from race HQ, a local football club car park with changing facilities and toilets. The weather at the start was a dry and mild 12 degrees centigrade with rain forecast for early afternoon.
The course takes you towards the river Mersey, where it follows the river for around a mile, then does a loop around the Chorlton Water Park and back on to the path before returning to race HQ. The loop was altered slightly for the day, to 2.9 miles (just under 5k). The course was a mixture of gravel, dirt & tarmac, quite uneven in places with a lot of puddles, tree roots, cyclists and dog walkers to navigate. Considering it’s on the edge of Manchester, it’s remarkably scenic, with lots of fields, trees and wildlife. For the majority of the course, it was only the distant rumble of the M60 ring road that gave away that we were in Manchester.
My aim was to keep running at a steady pace for as long as I could then walk/run until I’d had enough. The first 6 laps, I was pretty much doing a lap in 30 minutes. I went through 6 laps at bang on 11:30am, so my pace had been consistent. Laps 7 and 8 I did start to slow, and by laps 9 & 10 I was “Jeffing” [a combination of walking and running], doing a 2 minute run, 1 minute walk.
At the end of lap 9, my wife had arrived in the car park to provide support, but by the end of lap 10, the weather had changed for the worse, with a heavy rain shower and increased winds. So, as my taxi was waiting, and the weather was no longer pleasant, I decided to call it a day.
Official stats:
Event: Manchester – Friday Firecracker
Distance: 29.1 miles
Time: 05 hours, 37 minutes, 20 seconds
I came 4th based on distance covered!!!
