Snow Covered Lapland

Pic by Chris Upson

The BBC Weather site warned me that when the 101^st Glasgow parkrun started at 9:30am the temperature would be -7C, so I wrapped up well and headed through the snow and ice to Pollok Park.  I was surprised to be joined by another 103 runners, as we hurdled together to keep warm whilst Alan’s attempt at giving us our pre-race information was drowned out by the sound of dogs barking loudly. 

This week’s event had a Christmas theme and I was adorned in a Santa hat with plaited white pigtails.  Diane Mayes, who I had met at work on Thursday, introduced herself, in her full Santa outfit, including hat and beard.  With another race scheduled for Sunday and the day’s conditions, I had decided to take it easy and started well back in the field.  Today’s alternative course was in the field next to the Burrell and consisted of five undulating laps.  It was quite congested as we ran up the hill towards the wooden gazebo for the first of ten times so I left the group I was in and ran in the gap in front.  We turned left at the gazebo, ran along to the end of the field and then left again down the hill.  I was surprised to see Niall McAlinden and Chris Upson running in the opposite direction and for a moment thought that they had decided to give the parkrun a miss and do their own thing, until I saw other runners and realised that the course did a U-turn at the bottom and that Niall and Chris were leading the race.

I followed them back up to the gazebo and was marshalled off to the left, through some trees and then a sharp right took us down a trail towards the Start and the end of the first kilometre/lap.  Another runner dressed in the same hat as me had overtaken me but I caught her as we started our second lap up the hill.  She enquired if I was “Ian” and when I responded positively we had a chat about my recent holiday, which she must have read about on facebook or my blog.  She introduced herself as Clare Macaulay and we helped each other as we repeatedly ran up and down the hill.  As we started our fourth lap Niall and Chris lapped us, on their final lap.  No one else lapped but it was getting a bit confusing as we started to lap numerous other runners before we completed our fifth and last lap.

I completed my 60th race of 2010 in 33^rd spot with a time of 26:10, with Clare 36^th in 26:48.    

Niall finished first in 18:31, Chris was second in 18:47 and a hungover Al MacLachlan third in 22:09.  Ellie Homewood was next and first woman in 22:12, Suzanne McMahon was second woman and 18^th overall with a time of 24:07 and Maureen McVey third and 22^nd overall in 24:07.

I congratulated the other finishers as I waited for Diane, who crossed the line in 93^rd place in 34:50, before joining the queue to hand in our vouchers and have our barcodes scanned.  I then joined with the others making their way into the warmth of the Burrell café for the usual post race hot drinks and banter.

Results