MND Six Mile Run for Christine – 19 May 2013

Start of Race, pic by MND Scotland

This was only my second outing since New Year's Day, having completed the inaugural Tollcross parkrun on the 4^th of May. I've been plodding away on my own, building up my stamina and strengthening my leg muscles and hope to get back to club training sessions soon. However I appreciate that I'm still far from race fit but this 'fun run' provided me with a real test.


I've run the Four Mile version a couple of times and participated in many races in Strathclyde Park over the years, so I know most of the route well. My target was to complete the 6miles in under 55mins. There's a mixture of fun runners and walkers and some who have more racing experience. Many of us were participating in memory of friends or family who had died as a result of Motor Neurone Disease, as you may know, my sister, Christine, died of MND at the age of 30, some 20 years ago.

Christine Goudie

This year, the 4milers and the 6milers lined up together and we were set off at 11am in almost perfect running conditions. I set off quite strongly, clockwise around the south of the Loch, I noticed that I was dropping off the pack at around 2k and decided to catch up with them and, hopefully, they would help me around the six mile route. I latched on to a couple of chatty woman marathon runners and stuck behind them for a while. 

Shattered at the Finish

At the 4k mark, we were directed up Bothwellhaugh Road, I hadn't run this part of the course before and was surprised at how steep and long the hill was. I struggled up to the top, round a wee loop at Community Road, Bellshill and rewarded myself with a drink of water, before pouring the rest over my head. Refreshed and now running downhill, I felt a lot better and overtook the two women and others as I stretched my legs on the way down back towards Strathclyde Loch. The friendly marshals directed us up some steps and a short off road part of the route, before we met up with the slower 4mile runners, making their way around the north of the loch. The narrow path was quite congested with other walkers and runners as well as other park users. The lack of exercise over my 3months plus of illness was showing and there was no great surprise, when the women overtook me. Again I used them to pull me around the course. I dug deep in the last kilometre and managed to catch both of them in the final strait to cross the line in a time of 47:10. Much faster than I had predicted, although the course may have been a little short. I was delighted and shattered too but it was for a good cause. 


I congratulated and thanked the women runners for helping me around before doing my warm down and lending some support to those in the final stage of their runs.


I've got a long way to go but at least I'm on the road back.

MND Scotland