Runners Flood to Pollok Park

Start

The BBC Weather site predicted that the temperature would drop to -9C by the time the 102^nd Glasgow parkrun set off on Christmas morning.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were 86 other runners, compared to a total of 30 at last year’s event.  The road was icy and I skidded a few times as I made my way along to Pollok Park.  I panicked for a moment looking for my barcode before finding it below the driver’s seat in my car.  Panic over, I had a quick warm up and exchanged festive greetings with friends and running buddies as we listened to the pre race announcements.  No barking dogs this week, although there were a few dogs on leads and at least one runner dressed up as a hound (Scooby-Doo).  This week I started near the front and was surprised to stay there for a while as we ascended the hill for the first of ten times.  However as I approached the top I was overtaken by a deluge of elite runners.  I did think about giving it my all and trying to hang on to the tail-enders but, with Boxing Day’s Ayr Turkey Trot in mind, I decided against it.  That’s not to say I didn’t work hard, just that I could have worked harder.  We ran along the ridge and then made our way down the first hill and around the marshal, Stuart McBeath.  “Well done Allan” I heard him say and, as I turned and made my way up the hill for the second time, I could hear someone breathing heavily behind me.  A little later Alan Dempster overtook me, I hung on to his tail up the hill and through the trees before overtaken him on the narrow downhill trail through the woods.  A sharp right turn and the marshals were encouraging us up the hill for a third time.   I knew that he would be close behind so I did my best to hold him off as we ran the second of five laps.  At the start of the third lap, I was caught by Toni McIntosh who said that we were almost half way round the course and asked me if I thought I was going to beat her today as she passed by with Suzanne McMahon chasing after her.  I kept to my task and managed to get round lap three and four without Alan catching me again, which was a bit of a surprise as I seemed to struggle going up the hill for the seventh time.  Alan’s quite a bit younger than me and I was expecting him to have a strong finish so I worked hard on the fifth lap.  There was half a lap to go as I turned around Stuart for the last time, I made my way up the hill for the last time and noticed Alan running down a good bit behind.  No room for complacency though and I transcended the hill for the last time with a large gap in front of me.  I was able to increase the pace as I ran down through the woods towards the end and spied Bellahouston Harrier Matt Brown looking over his shoulder as I closed the gap on him. Around the last marshal and a sprint took me over the finish line in a time of 24:29, three seconds behind Matt and in 23^rd place, ten places better and 97 seconds faster than last week. 

Finish

Alan finished in 32^nd spot with 25:29, with Tom Keenan placing 29^th with 24:56.  Toni, who was saving herself for the Ayr race, finished as third woman (17^th overall) in 23:21, with Suzanne, who is also running at Ayr, fourth (19^th overall) in 23:50.

I had been lapped by two runners today, young Luke Traynor, who won in an amazing time of 17:42 and runner up Jo Fulmar who finished, almost two minutes, later in 19:42.  Russell Whittington placed third with 20:44, one place ahead of the women’s race winner Jill Smylie, who completed the snow covered course in 21:29.  Ruth Joss crossed the line as second woman but as she had no barcode the silver medal went to Winchester’s Sandra Bowers (14^th overall) with a time of 22:38.  

A number of runners and volunteers had brought along mince pies, coffee, mulled wine, chocolates and home baking which we gladly consumed with our post race banter and festive mutterings.  A huge thanks to everyone involved for such a great event.

PS I checked my race portfolio on Fetch to discover that this was actually my 63^rd race of 2010, meaning that I have surpassed my record of 62 established last year.

PPS I was later disturbed by my deaf neighbour who hammered on my door and informed me that her flat was being flooded from above and that her upstairs neighbour was on holiday.  I managed to trace down an emergency plumber who was able to turn off the flat’s water valve from the close.  Job done, well it is Christmas.

Splits:
1)  - 4:57
2)  - 4:56
3)  - 5:04
4)   - 5:10
5)  -  4:22
Results
Pics by Jim Buick