Wilmslow Hosts English Half Marathon Championships

30 MAR2010

For the second consecutive year the Asics Wilmslow Half Marathon had been chosen to host the England Half Marathon Championships, which meant that we had a very strong field of both male and female runners.

The unpredictable British weather kept organisers on tenterhooks the previous week wondering whether any of our off-road parking would be available. Working nights the Thursday before the race with heavy rain falling almost constantly, things were not looking good. But fortunately from Friday evening onwards the weather was kind and the field and the Rugby pitches dried out sufficiently to be used for parking. Race Day dawned cool and dry and it looked as though we would have ideal conditions for racing.

From the start it was clear that Andi's tactics were to go off fast and see who came with him. Running around 4:45 per mile, only Holmfirth runner Matthew Pierson was prepared to match this pace and in no time at all these two runners had a 200 metre lead over the rest of the field.

Meanwhile further back through the field lots of runners were chasing their own personal bests or trying to just get round and raise as much money as possible for Mencap which had been nominated as this years official race charity.

An innovation for this year's race was to have a timing mat at 10 miles which Andi passed in 49:14 53 seconds ahead of the rapidly tiring Matt Pierson. An interesting battle was developing for third place with Sale Harriers Gareth Raven and Matt Bond together with Tipton Harrier Michael Aspinall only a second apart. The three of them, whilst having their own battle were also beginning to catch Matthew Pierson in 2nd place. Meanwhile in the womens race Michelle Ross-Cope completed 10 miles in 54:51 over a minute ahead of her nearest rivals and was not only looking good for yet another victory but was in with a real chance of smashing her course record.

After missing out on victory last year by just eleven seconds Andi Jones made no mistake this year and was a convincing winner by nearly a minute. Gareth Raven finally managed to catch Matthew Pierson to take 2nd with Matt having to settle for 3rd. It's interesting to note that when Andi crossed the finishing line in 64:45 only 200 of the 3,700 runners had reached the 10 mile point!

Michelle Ross-Cope went on to clinch the ladies title for the 4th consecutive year knocking an incredible 32 seconds off the existing ladies record finishing in 72:02 with Kendal athlete Rebecca Robinson just over a minute behind. Full results and photo can be viewed on the Asics Wilmslow Website.