Strangers and Glasgow parkrun 87

This weekend I was planning to run the Paisley 10k, surprisingly for the first time. For some reason, I’ve never actually entered it before but have helped out at the water stations, taken photographs and even ran part of the course last year to get me to the finish line to interview the prize winners. A Sunday race meant that I had the rare opportunity to go to the pub on a Friday night. The Gig Guide revealed that The Strangers were playing at Sammy Dow’s and after an aperitif or two I headed to the South Side’s top music venue. The band and their raunchy singer, Andrea McNeill,  rocked. It was a great night: good company; excellent entertainment and perhaps a little too much alcohol.

I awoke at the usual time on Saturday morning and decided that rather than lying in my bed it would be better to go for a run so I decided, perhaps not surprisingly, to take part in the weekly parkrun. I was adamant that I wouldn’t get caught up in a race this time and wore a training vest and training shoes, rather than their racing equivalents. After the usual pre race chat and a brief warm up, I headed in among the pack of runners, avoiding any temptation to start near the front. I had set myself a target of just under 25 minutes and set off at a corresponding pace. Unfortunately my Garmin had reverted to standby mode and I spent the initial part of the run resetting it to training mode. The good thing about using the parkrun as a training session is that it means that you can take the time to thank the marshals for their support on the way round and give encouragement to other runners who may be struggling a little. It’s never an easy course to run, no matter what pace you do it at but it is a rewarding course. I explained to the marshals and others that were encouraging me to run faster that my target pace was 8:11 min/miles. I finished in 94th place out of 290, with a time of 24:12.

Easy does it (Pic by Gill Williamson)

Cambuslang’s Joe Kealey was first over the line but isn’t recognised by parkrun as he didn’t have a barcode, which provided Bellahouston Harrier’s photographer Bryan Lamb with recognition for his PB of 16:58. Kilmarnock’s running policeman, Andy McGhee was next in 17:05, with Berlin Marathon trainer, Scott Kennedy next with a new PB of 17:13.

There was a strong field in the Women’s Event where Garscube’s Kirsty Husband placed first for the third time in as many events, with a time of 18:32. Returning after an absence of 64 weeks was Victoria Park/CoG’s Susan Finch who placed second with 19:35, with Kirsty's club mate, running GP, Mairi Stanley earning third spot with a time of 19:52. Despite taking an impressive 20 seconds off of her PB, Suzanne McMahon had to settle for fourth place, with 20:34.

Among the many achieving PBs were John Gilhooly, who broke the 20 minute barrier for the first time, to finish in 19:57 and Nicola Kinnaird, who celebrated winning Glasgow parkrunner of the month, by smashing the 25 minute barrier to finish in a time of 24:41.


Results

Photos