Sale 5 Mile Road Race

It wasn't until about 8.50am that I decided to head on down to the Sale 5 mile race.  It was the eagerly awaited night out on Sunday 30th May that Dave Norman had been planning since before the Virgin London Marathon.  It was, as you would expect, a messy night out because Dave + Booze x running friends - lack of food = messy evening!!!!!!  There was a good group of people out in town including Jason Ward, Mark Buckingham, Matt Pierson, Mike Rimmer, Matt Bond, Tom Lancashire, Carl Hardman, Gaz Raven, Andy Norman, Matt Shaw plus many others from the Sale group.  I drove to save us the £45 taxi ride home.  Left Manchester at about 1am and had to call in Stalybridge becuase Donna and Carl were insisting on eating some rubbish before getting home.  So after a quick stop at the curry shop for pizza it was home.  Jason tucked up on the sofa as he refused to sleep in Kadi's Dora bed even though she was sleeping out and we were all asleep for 2am.  For some reason I woke up at 8am even though I had nothing to get up for, brew on and then decided to do the Sale 5.  Jason thought I was joking.  The race I would not describe as quick.  Three very tight hair pin turns on the course don't make for fast running.  It was a similar route to the Northern 12 stage course.  I took the lead after leaving the track and slowly pulled away.  Weather conditions were good and suppose the course was worth a few seconds in places.  Thought there would be more there considering it was a bank holiday and people are off work.  Second place went to Philip Hoole of Rotherham and third place to Ben Riddell of Salford.  Dave Rogers races are excellent events, well organised and he offers very good prizes.
Full results are here.