Matchstick Men

Photo: @Mike Hall photo's

Just back from Manchester where we spent a week shopping and catching up with people. Whilst there I took the opportunity to enter a local race as I always think the joy of running is you can do it anywhere. The Salford 10km took my fancy as I thought a change of landscape to all this green stuff we get around here might be good. I turned up early to check out the course and see who is in the running community of Greater Manchester. It was nice to see 'Running Mike' there, who was from the Holmes Place gym and the first person to give me and Emma some advice on running when we first started it back in Manchester almost 4 years ago. The rest of the field looked pretty fired up, and huge numbers from clubs turned out. I think I was the only Scottish Club runner there. The pre race conversations are the same though, PB times, injuries, races, diet, etc. These runners did look like they were up for it. Perhaps the artist Lowry had been to the Salford 10km and got his inspiration to draw matchstick men as these runners were very scrawny looking, but determined.

The course was 2 laps of a 5km loop. It was hardly picturesque, taking in a soap factory, some of those indistinct modern factory units, some terrace housing (I am sure I saw Jim Royale looking through the curtains), and a cemetery. Hardly picturesque, but this was Salford which has a landscape all of its own. I had a slow first lap of 19m 20 seconds, so I tried to speed up a bit for the second lap, and scraped through with a 39m 9 seconds. A seasonal best but not that good. Ahead of me were 116 other runners, which was an indication of how strong the field was. Results It's one of those races worth doing if you are in the area, but I wouldn't go too far out of my way to do it again.