The first time I've ran this race, although it's next to my old workplace of Ferranti, now BAE Systems. Sad to see that the Silverknowes site is now a housing estate, the last time I was there was with a delegation from South Africa. Anyway back to the race, which started outside of Scottish Gas's modern HQ in Granton. Three Bellas in attendance: myself, Shona Donnely and Gerry Scullion. Good to meet up with Jo Thom too before the race and Iain Duckworth after it.
No chip but I still started quite far back and as the race got underway, down a new road towards West Harbour Road, I was feeling good. Saw the 1k marker and noticed my time was 4 mins. A PB is on here, I thought. However as soon as we turned left we hit the head on wind which was to add minutes to our times. I saw Kirkintilloch's Gordon McDonald ahead and decided to reel him in as the race progressed. I passed him at 3k as we ran along the road to the turn at Cramond. I could see the leaders, including Kerry-Liam Wilson, Haley Haining, Jill Knowes and Jo Thom and then Shona coming back towards me. I was surprised that Shona was not further ahead and I felt a bit more positive. However when I looked at my half way time, I knew that I had no chance of a PB and was only running for pride. A heavy footed runner behind me overtook me at 8k and soon got away from me. I kept her in my sights as I made my way steadily back along the promenade with the sun on my back. As we were directed up the wee hill towards the finish I managed to overtake five runners, who were obviously more daunted by the incline than I was. I heard Jim Buick shouting 'C'mon Ian' and I pushed around the final corner for a sprint finish and finished just behind the woman(Margie Leitch)who had passed me at 8k. I finished in a time of 45:50 and was a bit dissapointed by that but I was happy enough with my race and managed to beat Gordon by over three minutes. Shona finished in 43:52 and although she was dissapointed, I later discovered that she had finished first FV40.
No comments:
Post a Comment