How the bypass event all came together

Following on from my article yesterday, Malcolm Fowler, who was responsible for organising yesterday's 5 mile road race, has kindly put together the following account of the event and how it all came together.

The day of the event started bitterly cold. Organisers were up well before sunrise setting up the start and finish for the race, refreshment stalls, signage etc. By the time the race was due to start the temperature had risen considerably and with bright sunny skies, conditions were ideal for running. Due to queuing to get into the car park and around one hundred runners still making their way to the start at 9.30am a decision was made to delay the start for 15 minutes.

Finally the klaxon sounded and the race was underway. Ryan Holroyd, a talented 18yrs old runner from Staffordshire Moorlands AC, and definitely a name to look out for in the future, took an early lead which he gradually extended to the turnaround point at halfway where he was about 30 seconds ahead of the 2nd placed runner. Whilst his lead remained fairly constant in the 2nd half of the race, nobody ever looked likely to close the gap and Ryan won the race easily in 26m26s.

An exciting battle was developing behind him as only 12 seconds separated the next five places with Stuart Doyle from Vale Royal finishing 2nd and local runner Mat Bigley from Macclesfield 3rd.

In the Ladies race Christine Howard from Matlock was a convincing winner with Sharleen Hollinshead (Cheadle, Staffs) 2nd and Kath Lamplugh 3rd. Team prizes in both the Mens and Ladies competition went to Macclesfield Harriers with Wilmslow Running Club 2nd. Prizes being handed out by Coronation Street actor William Roache.

With the race over, it was time to concentrate on the walk. Walkers were setting off from both ends of the bypass in roughly equal numbers and the complete length of the bypass was soon occupied by walkers of all ages. In total about 6000 people took part, some walking in just one direction and getting the bus back, others walking the return journey as well.

4pm and the walking was over. The organisers through the race entry fees and donations to walk along the road, had raised over £16,000 to be distributed amongst local charities and good causes. But many walkers through obtaining sponsorship will have raised thousands more.

It only remained for the stallholders to pack everything away, and the organisers to remove any litter and vacate the road, until it is finally open to the public to drive along, in about a months time.

It was around two years ago as work was commencing to build the Alderley Edge bypass that I first had the thought - Wouldn't it be good if a running race could be organised along the bypass before it opened to traffic?

I mentioned this idea to a running friend of mine who put me in touch with Alan Clarke from Nether Alderley Parish Council who also felt that as the residents of Alderley Edge and Nether Alderley had waited for around 40 years for a bypass, there ought to be some sort of public event to mark the occasion.

We were soon joined by Sheila Harris from the Combined Charities Christmas Shops and Andrew Henshall from Alderley Edge Rotary Club who had experience of organising a public walk along the Wilmslow and Handforth bypass before that first opened to traffic several years ago.

Eventually the intended format for the day began to take shape. We would start the day with a running race out and back along the bypass, followed by the opportunity during the rest of the day for members of the public to walk the length of the bypass. Any proceeds from the event would be donated to local charities and good causes and walkers would be encouraged to obtain sponsorship and raise money for their own favourite charities.

Over the forthcoming months meetings were held with representatives from Birse Civils, (who constructed the bypass) and Cheshire East Council and permission was granted to hold the event.

We then had to consider the logistics of the event;

With several hundred runners and a few thousand walkers expected, it was important to find a suitable car park. Thankfully AstraZeneca kindly allowed us the use of their car park.

If people walked from one end of the bypass to the other. How were they going to get back to the start? A shuttle bus service was arranged.

With a 3 mile walk long the bypass, walkers were likely to want food and drink - Mitch Gilbert from Rainbow balloons then did an excellent job organising a number of village businesses and community groups to attend and provide refreshment at either end of the bypass. Energie Fitness club from Wilmslow kindly offered to supply 1,000 bottles of water and bananas to the runners at the finish, thereby solving another problem.

The final piece in the jigsaw was the date of the event. The bypass was originally scheduled to open in Summer 2011 but Birse were well ahead of schedule and it looked as though the event might be held in Spring 2011 and then as work continued even further ahead of schedule, November 2010 seemed likely. Over the summer months we waited for confirmation of the date. There were many factors, not least the weather, that would effect when the bypass would be completed. Judging many months in advance when such a large constructon project would be completed is a tricky business! Eventually in late July we had a confirmed date for the event - Sunday October 24th. No sooner had the date been confirmed and posters for the walk and entry forms for the run been printed, than it began to rain and it continued to rain what seemed like almost every day for the next month!

Would the bypass be ready for the race and walk? Birse and East Cheshire council were confident. But looking from the Brook Lane and Chelford Road bridges at the start of October with sections of the road still just a muddy ditch, with no tarmac whatsoever. I was having serious doubts and so were a number of runners that kept contacting me telling me it was going to be more of a cross country race than a road race! I think that was why initially entries for the race were very slow to come in. The road simply wasn't there and who wants to pay to enter a road race when the road hasn't been built yet?

When the idea of a road race was initially discussed I had been asked how many runners I thought the race would attract and I had suggested I could attract at least 300 and with the novelty value of running along a new road it might attract 500. As the early entries trickled in at an incredibly slow rate I began to wonder whether I might be seriously embarrased and only have a handful of runners. But I needn't have worried. Within a few weeks helped by the publicity on alderleyedge.com and posters around the village, entries started to flood in. The 500 target was reached and entries were coming in faster than ever. I decided to accept up to 800, that limit was reached and surpassed. Would the race finish be able to cope with many more runners? I decided to risk up to 1,000. Whilst there are larger road races than this, they nearly all have electronic timing or are much longer races such as half marathons and marathons where runners are finishing over a much longer time period. Over 5 miles runners are finishing much closer together and faster than in a half marathon and it was going to be a real challenge to the finish recorders to accurately record up to 1,000 race numbers.

Ten days before the event there was now tarmac on the whole length of the road, but not all at the same level. It was just two days before the event, that the surface that everyone ran and walked on, was fully completed.

An extensive slideshow of photos which we took yesterday can be viewed in our collection on flickr. Additionally Bryan Dale from Racephotos took a great selection of photos yesterday which can be viewed on the Racephotos website. Runners are free to download any of Bryan's photos they wish, at no charge.

Tags:

A34 Bypass, Bypass Run and Walk