Race report by Dave Phillips.
I refer to this as the Nostalgic Half. Why? Read on.
I think it started in 1986 and I did that first one in 1.34 and have done them all since except one about 3 years ago (broken leg maybe??). They have been run over many different courses and way back Masseys organised it and it was 6 laps of the Ring Road. Interesting or what?
But today’s event was great with closed roads, lovely city and country course, hillier that the Ring Road, superbly marshalled (no Police anywhere), drink stations galore and great crowds and encouragement. What more do we need? Plus it was touch and go a few months ago whether or not it would go ahead so well done Cov. Council for seeing sense. This was a great civic occasion, bringing maybe 4,000 + runners and families into the City on a Sunday, filling the Council’s Car Park Coffers and of course local businesses benefited from the spend. So a no-brainer to discuss its future. It is a must for the City of Culture’s future. Or maybe we could also have a marathon as well next year as used to be the case in Coventry-also my 1st marathon in 1983.
The other nostalgia was running past Barr’s Hill school where my sister went, passing Bablake School playing fields where I played rugger for Warwick School against Bablake. Plus my dad taught at Bablake for 37 years and I had many happy days at those fields watching him teach rugby to the boys.
Then at Kersley we passed the Royal Court Hotel on the left. That used to be Kersley Hospital where I spent a month when I was 9 having a kidney operation and then recovering. One kidney stopped growing but the other compensated and is twice the size. Also running past the cross country course that we did recently.
Plus of course we ran past the Uni-formerly Lanchester College where I did my 5 ½ year Sandwich Course.
So what a great day with non-stop Massey support all round the course so roll on next year I say.
Massey time:
Dave Phillips 2.39. That’s 337 halves done now so getting to know the distance-just.