This popular race is organised by my very own Bella RRs. Changing and prize giving is at the prestigious Palace of Arts and the course starts and finishes on the cycle track in Bellahouston Park. The event is also a club championship race and attracts a healthy turnout from the purple posse. Unfortunately I was feeling very poorly and wasn’t really up to running a race. However, as Al McLachlan had recently said to me: “It’s only three miles!” So, of course I decided to run it and lined up at the start behind Shona Donnelly and Norman Boyle, I was pleased to see that the third Titan Tom McMillan wasn’t competing. I had mislaid my Garmin and decided not to burst a gut but to finish around the same time and hence the same points as Norman. It was a windy morning and someone commented that there wouldn’t be many PBs ran today.
I stuck to my game plan and followed Norman around the track out into the park, along past the Palace of Arts, down behind the House for an Art Lover and along to Paisley Road West, where we had to struggle against the wind blowing into our faces. I noticed that the pace dropped a little but I maintained my position and tried to shelter myself from the wind. As we turned left back into the park at the 2k marker, I noticed Norman looking at his watch and increasing his pace, so I did likewise. We overtook a few other runners as we made our way back towards the cycle track and up the hill to our left. I was aware that Graeme Wylie was behind me and with him pushing me and Norman pulling me around I felt that we were making good time. Out of the park, along Mosspark Boulevard and back into the park we ran, Norman was a good bit in front but he was still in my sights. We could see the cycle track ahead but the course takes a right and as we ran along here, Graeme pushed hard to overtake me just before the route turned left and up another small hill. Another left turn and we were on the flat before a slight downhill section took us to the entrance of the cycle track. I was making up ground on Norman and was feeling quite pleased as I made my way along the track to the finish just a few seconds behind him. However at this point I was overtaken by Alan Fitzsimmons who sprinted past me like a dog out of a trap.
Norman’s time was 20:57 and although I hoped that I had just dipped below the 21 minute marker, I wasn’t too surprised to learn that my time was 21:04. I finished 75th out of 171
72 158 Graeme Aitken Lomond ACC M MV40+ 20.55
73 67 Norman Boyle BRR M MV50+ 20.57
74 127 Alan Fitzsimmons Jog Scotland M MV40+ 21.01
75 95 Ian Goudie BRR M MV50+ 21.04
79 65 Keith Gibb BRR M MV40+ 21.29
81 72 Caroline Brownlie Springburn Harriers F FV35+ 21.34
82 114 Richard Leyton BRR M SM 21.36
91 44 Scott Johnson BRR M MV40+ 22.08
92 19 Gordon McDonald Kirkintilloch Olympians M MV50 22.09
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