Setting the Pace

Pic by William McAllister

My legs were still a bit tired and sore from Thursday’s Kirkintilloch race, so I had a couple of easy runs over the weekend. I started with my 75th parkrun on Saturday morning, in which I took it nice and slow. I wore my WobblyWilliams TryAthlete vest and started right at the back of the field. I ran round with Bella Harriers: Iain Burke; Mark Paterson and Kristina Greig (who were also having an easy run) for the first lap, before increasing the pace a little for the second half. I placed 135th out of 249 in a time of 26:15. The numbers were down significantly this week as a large number of regulars were running the following day in the Men’s Health 10k.  

Glasgow parkrun results

During post-race coffee and chat in the Burrell Café, I ‘volunteered’ to fill a vacant place in the Bellahouston Harriers team of pacers for the Men’s Health 10k.


Men’s Health 10k

I cycled along to Cartha Queens Park Rugby Club on Sunday morning, where I met the other pacers and supporters before warming up and making our way to Bellahouston Park for the 10am Start. I was one of two 55 minute pacers, the other being Derek Shand, and we set off in the second wave of runners, four minutes after the first wave. We were wearing special bright coloured running vests with our times on the back, so that the other runners could easily identify us.

Pacers one and all

We had been instructed that 55 minutes was to be our ‘gun’ time, rather than ‘chip’ time, and that we were to run a little under the 55mins. I started my Garmin as soon as our Start sounded and before I had crossed the blue electronic mats at the Start line. I had Garmin set to Virtual Partner mode and it displayed how much in front or behind the 5:30min/k pace I was at any point.

Pic by Suzanne McMahon

It was a humid morning, and despite taking it relatively easy, the sweat was pouring out of me as we made our way out of the park, up Bellahouston Drive and along Mosspark Boulevard, lined with cheering supporters, and onto Dumbrek Road.  As we reached our 3k mark, we cheered leader, and fellow Ayrshire man, David Millar making his way back at the 8k mark and then a little later runner-up, Robert Gilroy. The third runner, Thomas MacDonald, was just coming into sight as we turned right at the water station into Pollok Park. We ran round much of the Glasgow parkrun route before returning to Dumbrek Road and heading back to Bellahouston. We entered the park with 1k to go and a lot of runners, wanting to break 55mins, past by us as we made our way towards the Finish. Bryan Burnett, who had ran the race before resuming his commentating duties, gave me a name check as we entered the final strait. We crossed the line in a time of 54:15. This was slightly faster than what I was aiming at but Garmin also suggested that the route was only 9.92k long.

That said, I am always wary of relying in Garmin when running through a wooded park. I congratulated my fellow pacer and chatted with the other runners as we made our way through the congested post race area to hand in our chip timers and collect our goody bags.  After changing into my dry Men's 10k t-shirt, the post race chatting continued with many a running buddy.  A number of runners were completing in their first ever 10k, whilst others were returning to gauge their progress, including fellow Kilmarnock Harrier Ian Logan who succeeded in taking more than 10mins off of his inaugural race 12 months ago.

Some of us later made our way back to the Burrell for something to eat and ,of course, some more post race conversation. I managed to cycle home just before the heavy rain came down.

Volunteers
Huge thanks to all concerned and especially the runners, volunteers and supporters who suceeded in making both events so enjoyable.

Men's Health 10k Results

The official results revealed that my chip time was 54:06.