Race Date: Sunday 3rd November 2024
There are no hills on any of the routes in the Lancaster Race Series, and very little elevation gain. Therefore, they must be fast, no? The start and finish of this race, last but two in the annual collection, was on a proper running track. Surely another indicator of PB potential?
After my previous race (Richmond Castle 10k) I calculated the impact of added hills on race times. It was a wildly different factor at play in Lancaster – the wrong sort of leaves on the route.
The hosts, Lancaster & Morecambe AC, have three viable 13-mile routes to choose from, all starting at their base behind ‘Big Asda’ in Salt Ayre, Lancaster. This race had to use Route B, as the advertised Route A was flooded. Autumnal weather and seasonal leaf drop were no more than a noticeable nuisance but they combined on our route for the day to negative effect (or so I thought). After half a running track lap (anti-clockwise, obviously), runners left the stadium for a lap of the neighbouring cycle race track (and an eventual escape onto the River Lune Millennium Cycle Path). It was here, on the smooth tarmac surface, that we first noticed squeak and slip. The lost grip as the trailing foot tried to drive the body forward became a point of conversation for runners around me.
By the wonders of Power of 10, the stopwatch timing and Facebook publication, and John Schofield’s results website, we can consider the nett effect.
There’s a River Lune where I live, in Teesdale. It flows roughly east and into the River Tees at Mickleton. Lancaster sits alongside a different, bigger, River Lune. This one rises just 20 miles from its smaller relative’s source, both near Kirkby Stephen. It is pretty much flat by the time it gets to Lancaster and empties into the Irish Sea. The out and back course of this race had just 148 feet of elevation gain – you can see why it is PB-potential.
Taking the first five finishers who ran this race and who set a lifetime Half marathon PB during the last three years, the average (mean) impact was a shade over two minutes, very nearly 10 seconds slower per mile, or about 2.5%. Wet leaves slow you down!
From the start, on the track, in the shadow of the defunct ‘Gravity Flight Tower’, the route crossed the river on the rather splendid, cable-stayed, Lune Millennium Bridge, and then tracks the river in-land. There was another pair of crossings where the river forms a tight horseshoe bend, just before the turn-around point.
Heading back may well have been downstream but the angle was insufficient to get a real boost.
The cycle race track was just as slippery on the return – anticyclonic gloom entirely to blame.
There were plenty of marshals, and lots of water stations – an out-and-back always doubles these facilities!
There weren’t too many cyclists, fortunately, as neither we nor they seemed to know the protocol for choosing which side of the track to be on. The ‘audible means of warning’ required in the Highway Code was much used.
Bright yellow, long-sleeved t-shirt (whose design covers the race series), heavy medal, yet more water and a Wagon Wheel (not as big as they used to be) to all finishers.
It’s a decent race, with friendly runners, many of whom take advantage of the discount for entering more than one in the series via an annual season ticket.
I ran this race the morning after a very late night at a family gathering where far too much cheese was consumed. My performance here may have been negatively affected by those factors more than the slippery leaves, to be fair.
Steel City Strider:
Stuart Jones – 135th out of 347 finishers – in 1:48:53 (compared to 1:53:50 in Morecambe last year – which was not a PB, or anywhere near it).
First (and first male): Benjamin Tucker, Best Athletics, in 1:14:50
First female: Lisa Finlay, Dumfries RC, in 1:24:53
Full Results: here
