With Glasgow parkrun being cancelled this weekend due to the Highland Cattle show, I was in a bit of a quandary as to which race to run this weekend: Edinburgh or Strathclyde Park 5k parkrun on Saturday morning or the Scottish Vets Half Marathon on Sunday or even both. On Saturday morning I plumped for Strathclyde and made my way along to Motherwell for the Strathclyde Park event. A few other weel kent faces from Glasgow had made the same decision. After a decent warm up I made it to the Start line just in time for the pre race announcements. I set off at a decent pace but was surprised to see so many runners shooting off and leaving me behind. One of these was young Roisin McShea (13) who caught me in the sprint at the end of the Glasgow event a couple of weeks ago and another was even younger Scott Connal at ten years old. Also in front of me but running at a more sustainable pace were Willie Reid and John Gilhooly. My first kilometre took me 3:51, which was five seconds faster than my 1st k at Kilmarnock. However I was feeling sluggish and was disappointed but not surprised with my second k time of 4:14. I was focussed on a female runner with a pink top on who was a good bit in front of me, who I later discovered was 57 year old Scotland runner Jane Waterhouse. I reached the half way point at 10:10 and heard Mrs Gilhooly encouraging her son Keiran behind me. I knew that the teenager had beaten me on every occasion that we have run together at Pollok Park and was looking forward to him working me hard on the long road back to the Finish line. However despite the third kilometre taking 4:12, I never heard him or anyone else for that matter running behind me. I did notice that Roisin had slowed significantly but I knew from past experience to expect this and continued to focus on Jane. The fourth kilometre was slightly faster at 4:09 and I had caught a few runners. I watched as Jane overtook a couple of guys as I closed the gap on her. I caught the guys and was just about to settle in behind her for the last few hundred metres when I decided to overtake her and step up a gear. With 200 metres to go, I caught Roisin and, mindful of her fast finish, increased my pace to keep her at bay, managing to catch Strathaven’s Stewart Robertson in the process. I crossed the line in a time of 20:29, just two seconds behind young Scott Connal. I had run a 4:04 final kilometre, including a 3:04 sprint at the end but was disappointed. I wanted to get closer to the elusive sub 20 minute 5k but was 30 seconds away from that! Anything around my 20:06 time at Kilmarnock would have shown consistency but I was a good bit off of that too. Granted we had to run into the wind for the last mile and I had no-one pressing me from behind but I still think I should have done better.
The post race chat helped me to put things into perspective though as other runners pointed out that I ‘had raised the bar’. I had smashed my course PB by 67 seconds and had run my third fastest 5k, furthermore my wava was 73.8% and I had placed 26th out of 138. So in hind sight not really too bad performance. Once again huge thanks to all those involved with the event for given up your time and home baking, it is much appreciated.
Route and analysis.
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