Glasgow parkrun #121

Saturday morning saw me return, hangover free, to Pollok Park for the Glasgow parkrun. Amongst others, I got chatting with Martin Myant, who had beating me two weeks ago but, as he pointed out, only by two seconds. It was also good to see Scott Johnston making a return, after a long period of injury. I didn’t know how I would fare today as my legs were still a bit tired and sore. I had taken some Ibuprofen pills and hoped that they would get me around the course pain free.


I had a half decent warm up and lined up with some 274 other runners just before 9:30 for the usual pre race announcements. The numbers were down significantly from the previous couple of weeks, not least of all because the Women’s 10k was being held the next day. I lined up a bit close to the front than last week and as we set off down hill, I clocked 4:19 for the first kilometre. This was a little slower than Troon but faster than the 4:31 of my last parkrun. I watched as Clare Barr disappeared into the distance and I got into a game of leapfrog with Martin. At the 2k point, Bobby Young passed both of us and I immediately responded in kind. At the top of the hill I was surprised to catch young Roisin McShea, who was obviously below par as her course PB is 20:41.


pic of me catching Roisin, with Martin on my shoulder and Bobby Young not far behind.


It wasn’t long until Bobby left both Martin and my self to race it out between us for the rest of the course. I crossed the line one place but three seconds behind Martin, in 74th place with a time of 21:48. I congratulated Martin and the other runners including Clare, who had capped a great week by running a superb course PB of 20:27, to finish second women, and a delighted Julie Gordon, who had won for the first time, with a PB of 19:21.

In the men’s event Cambuslang’s Robert Gilroy beat his club mate Stuart Gibson by four seconds to place first, with a time of 16:06.



Best of Six
I was happy enough with my run but it was only after the post race conversation over coffee and scones at the Burrell that I looked back at my running stats to discover that I had run my best Glasgow parkrun in six months! On top of that there had been a slight improvement in my work level, as my Heart Rate had averaged 153, slightly up from Troon’s 151.


Results

Photos by Jim Carson