Glasgow parkrun 78

After ruling out running in the Glen Massan five mile trail run, on the grounds that the day would have been too long and tiring, I considered each of the three Scottish parkruns on Saturday morning. Carnegie Harriers were providing pacers at the fast Edinburgh course and Strathclyde would have afforded me the opportunity of getting a few miles in on the bike as well. However in the end I plumped for the local one, knowing that the Men’s Health 10k on the Sunday may allow me the chance of picking up some points in the Glasgow parkrun men’s points table.

I cycled along and did a wee warm up prior to the 9:30 start and then stuck in behind Erica Christie for the first part of the race. It looked as if hundreds of runners had overtaken us and I thought maybe she was having a slow run. I overtook her and soon noticed Graeme Aitken running along on my shoulder. Garmin indicated 4:14 as we completed our first kilometre. Erica and Martin Myant overtook us on the first hill and I pushed in to keep with them. However I found myself getting boxed out and started to fall slightly behind, with Garmin indicating 4:18 for the 2nd k. I kind of lost concentration and was feeling tired as Graeme left me to chase after Erica and Martin. I made my way around the hilly section and was disappointed but not surprised when Garmin indicated 4:41 for kilometre three. I increased the tempo as I made my way down the glade for the second time but was still overtaken by Suzanne McMahon from Edinburgh who had run her inaugural Glasgow parkrun last week. Garmin revealed that the 4th k had taken 4:34, a slight improvement but nothing like what I was hoping for. I dug in deeper, increasing the pace and overtaking a few runners on the hills. Apart from the tail runners completing their first lap, there was no one within catching distance but with the verbal support of the marshals and onlookers I pushed in hard making every second count to complete the fifth and final kilometre in 4:06. I placed 56th out of 229 and 52nd male in a total time of 21:53. Ten seconds faster than two weeks ago and eleven seconds faster than last week’s Ruby Young 5k. My wava was a respectable 69.08% and I had moved up to 16th in the male points table with a total of 952 points.

I’m making steady progress, however as I went for my warm down with Jim Buik and Suzanne McMahon I could feel the pain in my ankle hurting more than usual.

Selected Results
1 Yohan THOREZ 16:26 SM20-24 79.31 % M 1 Garscube Harriers New PB! 2
2 George TAYLOR 17:12 VM45-49 83.04 % M 2 Giffnock North AAC PB stays at 00:17:06 16
3 Michael MCLOONE 17:33 VM45-49 81.39 % M 3 Greenock Glenpark Harriers PB stays at 00:17:25 7 8 Jim BUICK 18:41 VM45-49 76.45 % M 8 PB stays at 00:18:14 35
17 Jacqui THOMSON 19:44 VW45-49 81.76 % F 1 Victoria Park Cof G PB stays at 00:19:22 14
22 William REID 19:59 VM50-54 73.81 % M 21 Kirkintilloch Olympians PB stays at 00:19:58 36
24 Joanne MCEVOY 20:00 SW30-34 74.08 % F 2 East Kilbride AAC New PB! 2
28 John GILHOOLY 20:25 VM50-54 72.24 % M 26 New PB! 29
42 Erica CHRISTIE 21:00 VW50-54 83.73 % F 3 Bellahouston Harriers PB stays at 00:20:06 34
49 Graeme AITKEN 21:26 VM40-44 64.15 % M 46 Lomond Hill Runners AAC New PB! 31
50 Suzanne MCMAHON 21:30 VW35-39 70.85 % F 4 New PB! 2
54 Martin MYANT 21:40 VM60-64 74.00 % M 50 Giffnock North AAC PB stays at 00:21:31 36
55 Simon GILBRIDE 21:41 VM45-49 65.41 % M 51 New PB! 7
56 Ian GOUDIE 21:53 VM50-54 69.08 % M 52 Kilmarnock Harriers and AC PB stays at 00:21:18 45
89 Tom ROSS 24:04 VM65-69 69.67 % M 80 Kirkintilloch Olympians PB stays at 00:24:04 36
93 Rebecca PERRY 24:14 VW35-39 61.69 % F 11 New PB! 13
104 Lynne GOLDIE 24:41 VW40-44 64.08 % F 15 Kilbarchan AAC PB stays at 00:24:36 12
107 Katy SMITH 24:56 VW35-39 61.10 % F 16 Kirkintilloch Olympians New PB! 17
114 Gillian ARMOUR 25:33 SW30-34 58.19 % F 19 PB stays at 00:24:38 16
123 Tracy GRABINER 26:11 VW40-44 60.41 % F 22 PB stays at 00:25:34 15
126 Angela CAMPBELL 26:24 SW30-34 56.12 % F 25  PB stays at 00:25:23 7
129 Gordon MCDONALD 26:32 VM55-59 57.91 % M 103 Kirkintilloch PB stays at 00:21:28 34
149 Catriona GOURLEY 27:40 VW45-49 58.98 % F 40 PB stays at 00:26:25 31

Full Results