Four Villages Half-Marathon, 21st January 2024
I have always said to the Brass Monkey runners that I would never enter a race in January, mainly due to the potential for bad weather causing abandonment or making travel to and from the event difficult, or just making the whole experience rather unpleasant. Not to mention the pain of training in cold, ice, snow, wind etc – and coping with the inevitable drop off over Christmas. So what was I doing signing up for a half-marathon in Cheshire on the very same day?
Well, the motivation was to run with family members and raise money for the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA) in my memory of my cousin, Dave, who died from this horrible disease in September. Dave was a keen runner (much fitter and faster than me) and his daughter, Alex, is running a series of races to raise funds for the MND Association (from the Great North Run to the Rob Burrow Marathon in Leeds in May). As this was the nearest one to their home on the Wirral, myself and other family members said we would join her for this run.
Having signed up, various running friends then started telling me that this was a tough one with numerous uphill sections. Then, as the day got closer, the weather forecast was promising high winds and rain as Storm Isha was threatening! Feeling underprepared (I know, we all do – always!) and dreading the worst, all I could do was look forward to an enjoyable weekend with the family. We rented a cottage, our sons came to stay with us for the weekend, my sister and brother-in-law called around and we were meeting cousins and their families on race day – so I would have a nice weekend whatever the Cheshire hills and weather could throw at us!
And so to the race – and a very enjoyable one it turned out to be. It is a well-established event – this was the 40th running – popular with the North West running community and had sold out some time in advance. The start was at Helsby Sports Centre which meant the option of waiting inside in the warmth, or joining in with other runners jogging around the all-weather football pitch that served as a warm-up zone. I met the other family runners there and we took our places in the start funnel. I had intended to start with Alex and her husband Andy, but somehow ended up a bit behind them, forcing me to put a spurt on to catch them after 800 metres or so. We then ran together through Dunham-on-the-Hill, the first of the 4 villages that give the race its name. Thankfully Dunham isn’t on much of a hill, and most of the ascent was more of a gentle incline! Gill and the lads were at the 3 mile marker to give us support and I was feeling much better than expected. Around 5 miles, Andy felt that he wanted to slow a bit and Alex stayed with him, but I pushed on as I didn’t want to break my rhythm. They warned me to save something for the hills to come!
Gill and our sons were there again around 6 miles, but otherwise the only support was from the residents of the very few houses on the route, as we were now out in the Cheshire countryside on narrow lanes, passing some “fragrant” farms. It was around 8 miles that we started to go up, and, although there were some short steep bits and a few long drags, the hills were not as bad as I expected. Luckily, the rain had held off and the wind wasn’t bad at all (though a gust did send the cake stand’s gazebo flying, forcing them to relocate indoors), and we were only running into it for some of the flat and downhill sections. So as we started the descent back into Helsby, I still felt fine and was even overtaking people (until, as is customary, getting overtaken in the last 200m by a few sprint finishers!). More family members had joined Gill to greet us at the end, which was nice. I was the first member of the Tinsley clan home (Alex had left Andy at 10 miles in order to try to catch me but had left herself too much to do!) and I was very pleased with my time of 1:34:15, 280th overall and 2nd in my age category.
I think 4 out of the 5 runners were pleased with our runs – with only Andy being slightly disappointed. Alex wasn’t treating it as a race, Gemma had said that she wanted to run 1:55 and did 1:54:49, while Paul said he would be delighted with 2 hours and ran 1:59:43. So it was a happy family who decamped to the Queens Head in Frodsham for some well-earned food and drink.
Overall, a good race, a nice day out and, more importantly, I have raised over £1,000 for the MNDA. This absolutely smashed my original target of £250. I have been amazed by the generosity of friends, especially my fellow Claremont Road Runners. All I can say is “thank you very much”.
I have since found some more photos, so I have created an album. See here.
