Boats and Planes and 21k

Selex Galileo, Crewe Toll

Turning Back the Clock

A bit of a strange week with a Wednesday trip through to meet AeroSpace, Defence & Security Industries (ADS), an organisation which I have campaigned to get established for years.  I actually did my Masters' Thesis on 'the need for a Scottish Aerospace Consortium?'.  The trip was even more poignant in the fact that the organisation is based at Sellex Galileo, Crewe Toll, Edinburgh, where I used to work and was the union secretary for a number of very eventual years.  After another meeting in Livingston, I made my way home and along to the Sherbrooke hills for a hard session, four long loops.

Thursday saw me having to get up just after 5am for a trip down to a Marine Industry meeting being held at the Boat Show in London.  It was a long day with me getting back home at 9pm, just as well that it coincided with my ‘rest day’.

I was tired on Friday and with the weather being cold and icy, I settled for squeezing in a 3mile run on the treadmill at lunchtime. 

An early night and my altered sleeping patterns had me wide-awake at 5am again!  I thought about having an early morning run but decided instead to stay in bed and let the outdoor temperature rise a bit.  My training plan had a 6mile, 13mile and 7mile run over the next three days.  The most important run for marathon training is the long run, so I decided that I would make my way to Strathclyde Park, do a lap of the local parkrun as a warm up, do the race and then another two laps and another kilometre would do nicely for my long run.  A bowl of porridge at 7am and I was set up for the day.  However, I can’t believe that I missed the turnoff for Motherwell and got to Strathclyde later than planned, a queue in the toilets held me back even more and I had to settle for a 2.5k warm up before the start of the 90^th Strathclyde parkrun. 

For whatever reason there was a super turnout of some 147 runners at the event and this was reflected across Scotland, with a record turnout of 1231 parkrunners.

There was some quality on display as well as Robert Gilroy and Nick Reid lined up at the front, I settled for a position 3 or 4 rows back.  Race Director Ally Robb explained that the route had been changed slightly this morning and that there were some parts of the route a little icy before setting us on our way.  I started steady enough as others seemed to make a mad dash at the start.  The first kilometre took me an acceptable 4:19. I found myself running along with Anthony Butler for a while.  I explained to him that I was doing a training run and as he maintained his pace, mine slowed to 4:31 for the 2^nd k.

The amended route, was more of an ‘out and back’ rather than the usual ‘loop’, but I was still amazed to see Robert Gilroy so soon.  The only saving grace being the fact that he was about a minute ahead of the next runner, Nick Reid.  The path around the turning point is quite narrow and I found myself behind two female runners with their dogs on long leads.  Not easy to overtake.  Once I managed to get past the first one, we met the outward going ‘slower’ runners, who had to adopt a single file approach as the dog decided to run to the right, rather than left.  I was stuck behind the lead for a while and the 3^rd k took me 4:34.  I eventually managed to get past and was confident that I would be able to make up some ground.  I could see Anthony way in front with 3 or 4 runners in between us.  The 4^th k took me 4:30.  I was a bit surprised to be overtaken by a white haired runner but with a big gap in front of us, I decided just to stick in behind him for a bit.

I knew that there were a couple of signs indicating 200m and then 100m to go.  I saw the yellow sign on the grass about 100m away and decided to go for it.  I surprised myself at how much I increased the pace, as I made sure that I opened up a sufficient gap on the other runner.  It wasn’t long until I saw the next sign, however rather than indicating that there was 100m to go, the sign said 200m!   The yellow sign had been a ‘keep left’ one.  I managed to hold onto my lead though but as Garmin beeped to tell me I had completed 5k, there was still another .09k to go. I crossed the line in 29^th position with the 5th k taken 4:17.  A total time of 22:16 and 6seconds ahead of my challenger, who turns out was Peter Ogden running his first Strathclyde parkrun, having run the Glasgow event 11 times.

Robert Gilroy’s time was 15:57; Victoria Semple was first woman in a time of 21:38.  Anthony placed 24^th, with a time of 21:52, with Ian Devoy finishing one spot ahead of me in 22:07.  Full Results

 Post Race

I completed my run along the shores of Strathclyde Loch, before being rewarded by some home baking, as ever provided by the friendly bunch of volunteers, and heading back to Glasgow, having banked 7miles.

Unlucky for Some

Glasgow Actually

February 28, 2011 was the last time that I had completed a 13mile run but I was confident that I could do it again.  However the problem, as ever, was getting out of the door and having enough self-motivation to actually do it.  I was ready to pack in my marathon training and just forget the whole thing but by 11:30, I was out and running towards Pollok Park.  No gel, jelly babies or even water were required as it was going to be an easy training run.  It was freezing cold but the sun was shining and it felt great to run along the White Cart, past Pollok House and beyond Lochinch.  A couple of left turns and I headed along Mosspark Boulevard and onto Paisley Road West.  The lights and traffic were against me, so I turned left, along Crookston Road and then another left onto Brockburn Road and my turning point at 10.5k.

The turn gave me some extra confidence and I headed back along the same route with a smile on my face.  Of course, I tired and my lack of preparation resulted in some rather painful chapping in my nether regions but I did complete the 21k, without stopping and with a smile on my face.  I’m so glad I did it and I tucked into my guilt free Steak Pie Dinner with relish.....and a glass or two of red wine.