Six days after the Sheffield half marathon a very different race. After “thank you marshal” at the Millhouses parkrun (with Joe Root) it was time to drive through the Peak District to my home county of Cheshire, I went to the village of Sutton near Macclesfield for the Lancashire Walking Club “Macclesfield Shield” 10 mile racewalk.

I only had time for 1/4 mile gentle warmup before the race, still a bit sore from the half marathon so I took it easy at the start. I let Nigel zoom off at the start, I just followed fellow Sheffield resident Martin in 2nd place. The course was a quintuple out and back, one mile gradually downhill out and then gradually uphill back.

1st lap felt easy, still a long way to go, started to feel tired by lap 2. Working fairly hard to stick with Martin, Nigel was a long way ahead. By lap 3 my legs were starting to complain,

Martin is much more of a long distance walker than me but I am faster, so it was just a matter of hanging on the best I could. On lap 4 I was working hard to hang on but I stayed in contact, very glad to get to the last lap. Hung on to the turn point at 9 miles but then just after the turn I speeded up and pulled away from Martin. Very hard work in from here but I stayed in 2nd place.

Mile splits:- 11.18 11.40 11.09 11.38 11.15 11.45 10.59 11.43 10.59 11.05, 1h53.27 for 10 miles.

Very tired on finishing, Martin finished 33 seconds behind. 6 out of the 8 finished 10 miles. Pleased with my walk considering last weekend. Glad to get inside for the post-race food after the race.