Spring has Sprung (hopefully) at Fletcher Moss

 Hello Spring, its' been a long time.

Ever since I got some running tights and an Under Armor long sleeve top for Christmas, I've done all my winter training, and races wearing them (have been washed a few times).  When I looked at the weather forecast for today, I realised it was time to get my little legs and armies out and get back into some normal running gear.

I've got Lostock 6 tomorrow and want to get under 45 minutes, and for the past two weeks I've ran under 22 minutes (Alexandra and Birchall Playing Fields) so the aim was to get as close to that here too.  I've ran this course 4 times but not since May 2022 where I got 22.47 and have completely forgotten the lay out/.  I thought it was more or less flat so with the training I've been doing, I had a course PB in mind if nothing else.  

I arrived about 30 minutes before the start and parked on the lane leading up to the start.  Weather forecast was right, it was lovely, sunny morning, so much warmer than last Saturday.  Perfect running conditions.  I said hello to the RD, Ben, and asked him if it was as flat as I remembered, 'there are a few bumps' he told me and reminded me of the course lay out (essentially like a weirdly shaped lollypop, straight to start with with two laps, before running back down to a home straight.)  Despite this polite warning, I thought I'd just go for it anyway and run as fast as I could as see if I could hold on.

I ran my 50th different parkrun last week but Fletcher Moss has to have decent shout for one of the prettiest starts to a parkrun.  You can see from the picture what a beautiful park this is and once again. can feel so privileged to be able to do this free event in beautiful places every Saturday morning.

I started relatively near the front and was joined by 401 other people to run, jog or walk in this gorgeous location.  It's hard to explain the elevation here, there are only 27 metres of ascent and it's probably best explained a bit like a BMX track sharp up and downs, with some sharp turns.  Not the easiest to pace but a really interesting course, with plenty of spaces to try to overtake whoever is next you.   My favourite part was the last mile or so which seemed to downhill and was my fastest lap.  

We are so blessed in this part of the country, there are so many different types of course within a couple of miles.  Alexander, flat and fast, Sale, best described as 'varied terrain' and not a PB, beautiful Bramhall etc.  What is more, despite there being just over 400 runners, the course did not seem overcrowded, even though it is two laps, the 'stick' of the lollypop stick is long enough to give time for the field to spread out.  You can tell that the core team when they were planning this put a lot of work into it.

First male finisher today was Duncan Birtwistle from Rugby and Northampton AC with 18.10 (PB of 17.13, overall of 16.21 at Alexandra).  First female being local runner Amy Weyers, from Chorlton Runner who was 9th overall with 20.30 (PB of 19.14 and overall of 18.17, also at Alexandra)  Well done both, you guys run a different sport to me.

We also had 23 people running parkrun for the first time !  Welcome everyone to the day that was formally called Saturday, now.....parkrun Day (also lower case, always one word)

Fletcher Moss is different to all of them, its relatively fast without being overcrowded due to being pancake flat, but it also has some small sharp hills which are just enough to kick you out of your pacing.  It's a lovely park, stunning start and finish and Didsbury village on it's doorstep.

I say this every week, but again, I'd be more than happy if this was my home run