I had a 9 mile in 75 minutes training run in my schedule for this week so the Moffat Gala 15k race seemed to be a suitable alternative. I checked last year’s results to make sure that I wouldn’t be too embarrassed finishing in such a time and was surprised to see that Kirkintilloch Olympians Tom McChord and Gordon McDonald had completed the event in 74:11 and 74:51 respectively. Both of them would be expected to run 15k quicker than that, so I presumed that they had also used it as a training run.
Moffat is about 58 miles from Glasgow but it’s just off of the M74 so the journey would take approximately one hour. I texted the organisers to finds out about time and place of registration and set off through Glasgow’s rush hour traffic shortly after 5pm. I don’t think I’ve actually been in the 19th century spa town before but first impressions were very good. The kid’s races were already underway when I arrived and I parked my car and made my way up along the route of the kid’s races through the crowds to the Town Hall. There was an impressive turnout from the local Dumfries Running Club as well as the claret and amber of Motherwell AC as some 316 runners assembled in the middle of the street for the start of the 7:15pm race. I had been forewarned that it was a hilly course but hills no longer fret me in the way that they once did. I had also had a pre-race drink of my new secret weapon: Your Sports Fuel, the sugar free nutritional drink for endurance and recovery that Mark Cooper had used to help him achieve his 50 marathons.
We set off heading northwards out of the town and, from our start at 112 metres above sea level, we gradually ascended to 177m as we made our way along six kilometres of the Old Edinburgh Road to the farm at Ericstane. I was pacing the race well and had averaged just under 5min/ks. However here the route left the road and joined a farm trail heading up to the top of a proper hill. Whose idea was it to include a hill walk as part of a road race? Everyone in sight was walking, I initially ran but it wasn’t long until I had joined the ranks of the ramblers. I was worried about hurting my ankle on the uneven surface and I was being careful. I was also worried about my heart but I was still overtaking other walkers as we made our way up to a height of 345m at 7.5k. Garmin had informed me that my 7th k had taken 8:49!! I took a jelly baby and someone behind said “aha that’s your secret”. I reached the half way point in 42:47 and knew that I would need to go some to reach my target of 75 minutes. However the route joined the A701 here and I immediately felt great as I set off running downhill back towards Moffat. I could see a long line of runners ahead descending, in single file down the open road. As I chased after them I noticed a strong runner in a blue vest and decided then to focus on him. I was overtaking runner after runner as I made my way down. The 9th kilometre took me 4:23 and the 10th 4:20. I had taken 53:52 to run 10k and I would need to run a 5k in less than 21 mins if I was to reach my target. I continued to chase after blue vest and we both continued to overtake runners. As we ran through the town past the cheering onlookers I managed to catch the last couple of runners between us. However as we approached the finish line he managed to overtake a diminutive Dumfries runner and finished two places ahead of me. I heard the announcer saying “Ian Goudie of Kilmarnock Harriers” as I crossed the line in a time of 74:15 in 119th place. My last 5k had taken 20:23, splits: 4:17; 4:19; 4:09; 4:09 and 3:29!! I had ran my third race in four days and I had ran my first ever 15k.
Results
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