It’s January, It’s 2020, we’ve said good bye to 2019 and welcomed a new decade. Everyone has new goals, the Strava counters are reset and it’s time to go again.
So what’s been happening? January starts like no other month, double park run opportunities and on a week day too. Plenty of the group hitting at least one of the New Year’s day parkrun events with some taking on the double. Attendance at parkrun was very high at all locations visited by the group.
The first race of the new year was the ‘Bellevue Racers – Hit The Trail’ event. A local 5 mile trail run at Reddish Vale. Tackling this on the day there were a few of the Daddies Escape team.
Mark Collier starting the year as he finished the last by tearing through the course and coming home in 5th place also winning his category. A return to racing for Shaun Chambers after his hernia operation finishing 25th and also returning from injury Richard ‘Wilf’ McCalmont who placed 31st.
Whilst there was a lot of action at Hit the Trail, Liam had agreed to pace the 1 hour 45 minutes slot at the Fylde Coast Runners – Central Lancs Half Marathon. On the day he was joined by Paul Minton who positioned 34th of 426 in a chip time of 1:31:06. Liam paced to perfection as usual crossing the line with a chip time of 1:44:47.
The week after saw the Manchester Area Cross Country League (MACCL) hit Tatton Park. Mark Collier tackling the mud came 7th in his category and 52nd overall male in a very competitive field with a time of 35:37.
Half way through January a new race from our friends at Run North West. The Alderley Park Winter 5 mile trail race. There were lots of local runners attending this new to the calendar event, and even some of the Daddies team volunteering as course marshalls.
Running on the day Mark Collier finished an incredible 2nd overall! Shaun Chambers getting round and completing the course too coming home in 19th position! Well done Mark and Shaun, absolutely outstanding running there!
Our marshalls for the day were Andrew Nurney and daughter Eve along with Michael Tipper, superb effort to be volunteering early on a Sunday morning, well done all.
During the same weekend Paul ‘Minty’ Minton was enjoying a break with wife Heather in Amsterdam. Whilst there they decided they would take on the Vondel Park Loop 10k race together. Heather finished the course in a new 10k PB, an international one at that! Well done Minton family.
They even visited a familiar sounding cafe for coffee. Not Frankies but Frenkies and the coffee was deemed to be almost as good as Denton’s finest…. almost.
What else has been happening?
Liam has taken his family to Australia for a month and has been putting in some of his own international miles down under. All this of course when he’s not working on his sun(burn)tan.
This after running a marathon distance at Hyde Parkrun a few days earlier with the help of Shaun, Andy Hadfield, Dave Ayre and Pete. Running from 5am and using the parkrun 3.1 miles to round up to the marathon distance. This was all in aid of the Running Bee Foundation charity.
There has been a few people doing the RED (run every day) challenge for January. Most notable for me are Ricky Lee and Andrew Nurney. They will both be the first to admit that they can’t always get out as much as they want to but wanted to do this challenge and run all 31 days of January. Well done guys!
Mark Bousie tackles most runs he can get his trainers on for and if he can, he will take his sons Harry and Charlie along. Mark completed the night time run at Lyme park towards the end of the month as well as racking up the miles through a busy month training towards the Manchester marathon in April.
Pete has been working off an injury by deep cleaning his oven and dishwasher.
Frankie has been back out running and enjoying it as has Wilf after having an injury of his own which has been great to see.
Even finding time for a conference call to Andrew Nurney….
Tipper has been off climbing mountains as he prepares for his trek to Mt Everest base camp on March 1st. Mike is raising money for the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and if you can sponsor anything to help towards his fundraising then please do so on this link: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/michael-tipper3
Gaz Swift found his son getting closer and closer to him on the weekly 5KM at parkrun. Tom finally beat his dad earlier this month and even broke through the sub 20 barrier whilst doing so. Tom’s time for the day was 19:55!! Well done Tom!
As for me, I’ve been out marathon training and putting some long runs together. I did take our dog ‘Willow’ out for a 5k and she absolutely amazed me by completing a 5k in her new PB of 20:22. Well done dog. Going to be aiming for a sub 20 next month for this 4 legged racer.
Finally I was invited to the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital Charity sporting heroes event to celebrate the fundraising of all those who’ve taken part in sporting challenges through 2019. Those people and those challenges alone raised around £350k for the charity. Such a great event and great getting to chat to people I’ve met along the way. Always better when Michael Tipper is there too.
Lots coming up in February with a few races on the calendar where PB’s are there to be taken down. So look for our next blog posts during February .
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