Tears and a Tale of Two Fifties

My Fiftieth parkrun

I had tears in my eye on Friday but they were not the result of finding out that I was ineligible to run in the Arran Relay this year, nor were they from my emotions as my 50th parkrun beckoned. Instead they were the result of a viral infection. The pain was to keep me awake on Friday night and scupper any chance I had of achieving a Glasgow parkrun course PB to celebrate my half century of parkruns. However the pain and the lack of sleep was not enough to stop me from participating and donning my running shades I headed to Pollok Park. Quite a few of the regulars were absent with the Arran Relays and Musselburgh 10k taking place on the same day, including Al McLachlan who was also on the 49th parkrun mark. However the ranks were swelled with a significant number of charity runners at the weekly free time run.

As we set off, I noticed that my Garmin had reverted to standby mode. Not a major problem but I wouldn’t be able to time myself. By the time we had run 200 metres Marc McColl, one of the race favourites had pulled up injured and I gave him a call of encouragement. I had a decent steady run, nothing too exciting but I did make my way up through the field in the second lap and managed to hold off a few runners who were reluctant to let me pass them unchallenged. One of these was Mairi Stanley’s son James (JM14), I heard his heavy footsteps chase after me before the sound disappeared into the distance. I turned off of the glade for the second and final time and found myself being overtaken by Laura Patterson as we made our way to the hills. I was confident of passing her on the climb but she may have slowed slightly and I overtook her before we reached the last hill. I sped on keeping her at bay to finish in a time of 22:12, seven seconds ahead. However she had achieved a huge new PB, her previous best time being 23:15.

Others doing really well in achieving new course PBs included: John Gilhooly with a time of 20:22; Suzanne McMahon, 20:55 and Martin Myant, 21:17.

No PB for me but I had become only the second person in Scotland to complete 50 parkruns and the first to have done so by competing in all three Scottish parkruns.



A&E

After a celebratory cup of coffee it was off to the Victorian Infirmary, where within one hour, I had been seen by four people: the administrator; a nurse; a doctor and a specialist. The diagnosis was that I had a Corneal Ulcer in my right eye. The doctor not only provided me with two sets of prescribed eye drops but also called the Eye Hospital to arrange an appointment for me. The NHS is surely a treasure that we should all be proud of.

I then headed home for a later than usual brunch and a much needed pain free sleep.



Fifty Mile Week

Being a bit run down with a viral infection, I wasn’t exactly bursting a gut to get up and run my scheduled 18 miles on Sunday morning. However after forcing myself downstairs for porridge and dusting down my old ‘camelbak’ and filling it with Your Sports Fuel, packing a couple of Jelly Babies and £1 coin for the Sunday Paper (or an emergency), I was on my way. I initially thought about running out the Kilmarnock Road for 9 miles and then turning back but instead decided to avoid the long climb out of Glasgow and headed along towards Silverburn. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many runners out at 9am, including Casey Morgan and a small group of elite runners who made their way into Pollok Golf Club as I passed by them on the other side of the road. I made my way to Pollok and along Barrhead Road, where I turned right onto the less than scenic Nitshill Road. Just before running under the M77, at around 10k, I had the first of my two Jelly Babies. More than a third of the way there, I thought to myself. I only had another three miles to run before I could turn back. I continued along the same road as it changed its name to Rouken Glen Road and then Eastwood Mains Road. I recognised the last part, as it had formed the half way point of my 10 mile run during the week. I turned around just at the road became Busby Road. My pace had been a wee bit slower than what I was aiming at but as soon as I turned around I got the benefit of the downhill section and my started eating into my lost time significantly. It wasn’t long until I had less than 6 miles to go and aided by my second and last Jelly Baby I headed back towards Silverburn. I noticed that the public thermometer was showing 21C. I had felt hot from the start and had been sweating since the first mile. I kept on sipping away at my ‘camelbak’ fuel until it ran out with about 5k to go. However I knew that there were no surprises ahead and although I was feeling tired my pace remained on track. Back onto Pollokshaws Road and I saw three other runners and then George Taylor. We gave each other a cry of support and I made my way along my last two miles, stopping briefly to buy a Sunday paper before heading home for my recovery drink, ice cold bath and hot brunch before my siesta and watching the extremely entertaining final section of the Tour de France. It wasn’t that long ago when I had run various sections of the Tour with Mark Cooper. I had completed my 18:01 miles in a time of 2hrs 32mins and 19secs. An average pace of 8:27 min/miles, the same as last Saturday’s long run. I had run 51 miles in the week, the most I had accumulated since the week before the Alloa Half on 21st March.