There was a bumper turnout as the numbers came out in force to celebrate Glasgow parkrun’s return to its traditional on-road format. An impressive 231 runners joined me in braving the sub zero temperatures and the testing, hilly course.
I set off just in front of Keith Gibb and behind Erica, I noticed Jeff Farquhar shooting off in front and I tucked in with the masses as we made our way down hill on the road part of the course. As we turned left and approached the first puddle, I found myself running shoulder by shoulder with another runner that I recognised but didn’t know his name. I wasn’t out to race him though and let him run in front and into the distance. I must have passed Erica as when we turned the next left into the wooded part of the route, she overtook me. I would have been happy to sit behind her but she slowed down and I decided to maintain my early speed. Keith caught up with me on the ‘glade’ and commented on the fact that I was running faster than I had predicted. I gave a short grunt in way of an answer and when he started to chat, I put the foot down and ran away from him. I’m sorry I just wasn’t up for a run/chat.
Keith, Me -looking rough and Erica lurking behind us - pic by Gill Williamson
As I approached the sharp left turn at the bottom of the glade, I noticed Erica on my shoulder and decided to increase my pace to keep her at bay. However I was starting to feel a bit worse for weather and when she caught me the third time I let her go without a chase. I was now running along beside a guy with a Scottish Vet vest on and wondered what it would have looked like if I had worn mine too.
Two Scottish Vets - pic by Gill Williamson
In the second lap of the race I could see Erica ahead and decided that I would try to finish as close to her as possible. However as I ran down the glade I could hear someone’s heavy breathing right behind me. I increased the pace and lost them for a while but as I made my way up the hills I could hear them again. My tactics in this event is to work hard up the last hill and then make a dash for it knowing that their will be a long down hill section as we approach the finish. I did this and the sound of heavy breathing disappeared. Although Erica was out of site, I increased my stride and caught a couple of guys with my strong finish to place 51st with an acceptable time of 22:12. Erica had placed 47th with 21:51, Alistair KERR the Scot Vet had placed 48th in 22:00, Keith had had a strong finish to place 53rd with 22:17 and the heavy breather who turned out to be asthma sufferer Ada Stewart 55th in 22:20.
Men’s League
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that as I had also acted as a volunteer at the event, by doing the race write up, my points had been increased to 100, giving me a total of 493 and taking me to third in the table, behind Al MacLachlan on 553 and that man John Gilhooly on 595. I wonder if that guy who had ran shoulder to shoulder with me at the start was the said Mr Gilhooly?
Vet Relays
As it happened I was too late to represent Killie at the Vet's Relays, the club had a good turnout, with their A team placing third.
Full Results
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