Well there isn’t too much you can say about the terrain, hills, surface, distance or in fact anything as the whole event was a series of as many 400 mtr laps of the track you could do in an hour.
So 10 red and whites lined up for the gun start with very strict instructions. Do not go off course, don’t cut corners and when you hear the 2nd gun blast it means there is 1 minute to go. Then when gun 3 blasts off you stop where you are and your lap counter will meet you and pin your number to the track with a skewer. By doing this your laps and exact distance will be recorded.
There were about 22+ runners in the event-quite normal as too many would not be practicable and we spent an hour lapping others or (as in my case) being lapped. But who cares as even the fastest would finish with the same time as me!
As the race progressed Simon Brown and Pete Paprcka were going head to head with each of them taking it in turns to be in front but eventually Pete P gained the ascendancy and poor old Simon just could not catch him and when the final gun blast came and only a minute left Pete had the ascendancy and won for the 2nd consecutive year. And well done Simon for your Silver.
Also bobbing along nicely was Sheila Johnson who finished 1st lady vet and also got the British and UK record for her age category in the 1Hour race records.
So well done all 3. And as Dave Conway won it 3 years ago MF have won it for the last 3 years.
As we met after the race on the track at the end out came the usual excuses. Lean Cop said that when he heard the 2nd gun he stopped dead in his tracks thinking it was the end. Only when the others sprinted past him for the final minute did he realise the error of his ways and said that prevented him from winning! Not true Leon.
Then Dave Goodwin said that his time was 59.59 so 1 second faster than the last time he did it so he claimed a PB for the 60 minute race. Same time as me and the others we pointed out.
But a great evening then off to the pub in Warwick for the results and celebrations.
Lastly a thank you to all who came as lap counters and supporters.
Massey results (all except DG did 60 minutes so was it a draw?) in meters:
Pete Pap 14755
Simon Brown 14702
Steve Damms 13644
Leon Coppola 13569
Graham Patton 12769
Dave Goodwin 11506
Sheila Johnson 10889
Lesley Keighley 10348
Ed Goodwin 9215
Dave Phillips 8962
Race report by Dave Phillips.