50th 10k Celebrated with a New PB

Irvine Marymass 10k Start (Kenneth Phillips)

It was with mixed feelings that I made my way down to Irvine to participate in this year’s annual Marymass 10k road race. I ran a good race at the event last year but was feeling very tired this year and only decided to run it as it was a Kilmarnock Harriers Club Championship Race. I carbo loaded with porridge and made my way down the M77 before turning off and taking the more scenic route through Kilmaurs to the Ayrshire coastal town.

I arrived in plenty of time and was happy to receive the number 9 as my race number. As someone who loved mathematics at school, I’ve always been intrigued by the number. If you multiply it by any number and then add up the digits until there is only one number left that number is always 9. It’s what’s known as the digital root. Anyway back to the race, I chatted with loads of other runners from various clubs and some non attached runners, including Marianne Wilson from my old French class at Glasgow University. I drunk my Your Sports Fuel mixture and then warmed up as I led Bellahouston Road Runner Tom McMillan to the start of the race. The race director advised us that the event would be late in starting as there had been a sudden influx of registrations, however the local councillor and Gala Queen would need to leave for another appointment, so we staged a race Start for the local press. Once all the 211 runners were at the start line, we were advised that Scottish Athletics had measured last year’s route and it had proved to be short, so the route had been amended this year to take this into account. I knew that the Power of 10 had refused to accept athletes’ times from last year, when my endeavours had resulted in a PB of 42:19, way quicker than any other 10k I’ve raced. At 7:37pm we set off down the road, around the roundabout, up Harbour Road, past the railway station, and onward to the 1st k marker at the next roundabout. Garmin bleeped to inform me that I had taken 4:05 to reach here. I was tucked behind two runners but as I wondered momentarily if I should try to stay with them or not they sprinted ahead down the loop that had been added to the route before turning a sharp left onto the trail through the Beach Park. I found myself running at the front of a pack for much of the next, undulating, kilometre. I was overtaken by another Killie runner (John Parker?) and hoped that I would be able to catch him before the end. I was also a little disappointed that my pace had dropped to 4:19. Laura Wallace (aka Toni McIntosh’s twin sister) caught me at this stage and we ran along together for the next, slightly downhill, kilometre in a time of 4:08. I lost her over the next, slightly uphill, kilometre however I did catch up with the other Killie runner and although Al Murray overtook me, I was not at all disappointed as I knew that he was in a false position. At the turning point, I caught Ayr Seaforth’s Tom McCulloch and noticed that Alan Dempster was among the following pack. The fourth kilometre had taken me 4:19 and I was to stick at around this pace as I made my way along Marine Drive hotly pursued by Tom McCulloch and trying desperately to keep in touch with Laura ahead. The fifth kilometre took 4:20. Bella Road Runner Barry Edwards caught me and commented on how good I was running as he passed by with me struggling to breathe, never mind chat. I know how good Barry and Laura are and kept working away. The sixth kilometre took 4:19. After we rejoined the Beach Park path, I held off a strong challenge from, who I presumed to be Tom McCulloch, increasing my pace to keep in front on three occasions before I was finally overtaken, not by Tom but by Alan Dempster. The seventh kilometre took 4:19. I thought I was making up some ground on Laura but as we reached the 8k marker and Beach Drive, I could see her increasing the pace. I hard to work hard to maintain my pace here as we ran straight into a headwind. I could tell by the marshals’ comments that someone was right on my tail and I was adamant that no-one would catch me in the final stages. We turned at the roundabout and made our way along Harbour Street. The ninth kilometre had taken 4:19. The last kilometre seemed long, I was struggling, someone tried to pass me and I had to dig deep to find the energy to fend him off, I raced at a maximum pace of 3 min/k to complete the tenth and final kilometre in 4:00, a total time of 42:30. I grabbed a much needed bottle of water and slumped down beside the harbour wall before recovering enough to share mutual congratulations with my fellow runners. I had taken a remarkable 34 seconds off of my 10k PB and had achieved a wava of 74+% for the first time ever.

Concentrating on the Finish (Kenneth Phillips)

I compared notes with fellow Harriers, Michele Goldie and Brian Darroch, as we warmed down on the way back to the Irvine Sports Centre. After a cold shower, a hot coffee and more post run chat, I was just about to leave when an old school friend Jim Stevenson spotted me and we had a wee chat as the prizes were awarded. Of course I was nowhere near a prize, finishing in 70th place and 9th in my age group but I was still a happy chappy, even more so when I realised that I had achieved my new PB on my 50th 10k road race.

Huge appreciation to Les and Liz McDerment and David Mitchell for their support at various parts of the course and to all the marshals and officials who made the event such a success.

Results Here