My 13th Strathclyde Parkrun - Unlucky for Some?

I ran my 13^th Strathclyde parkrun on Saturday 9^th November. Conditions were good as the heavy rain ceased around 9am and there was no wind, or bright sunshine to worry about. There were a few puddles and the alternate, longer?, route was used. After last week's run which I had found difficult, I had decided to start much slower and run a more even paced race. After a sleepless night, the first part of the plan was easy, however after the 1^st k, my pace dropped and stayed there for 3k, I did manage to raise the pace for the last kilometer but not enough to make up for the middle part of the race. I placed 41^st out of 141, with a disappointing time of 22:43.

It did feel good though to finish strong and at no point did I think about dropping out.  I've continued to train hard and this was my 4th parkrun in 4 weeks.  My time was actually 43 seconds better than my last outing at Strathclyde and co-incidentally was the same time that I had run there on 11^th December 2010. There's always positives if you look hard enough :-)

Race report

I had noticed that Garscube's AlanBlair was well in front when I saw the faster runners and he ended up winning in a time of 17:15, some 35secs in front of runner up Richard Mannering, with Motherwell's Andrew Buchanan placing 3^rd with a time of 17:56.

Unfortunately Alan's wife, Emma wasn't so successful as she missed the Start. The plaudits in the Women's event went to Claire McArthur, who won Gold (9^th overall) with a time of 19:22. Remembering her barcode this week, Ada Stewart had another great run to place second in 21:34 with Red Star youngster Gillian Johnstone placing third in 21:58.

In her first outing at Strathclyde and only her second ever parkrun, my training buddy Adele Walker placed 4^th woman and 36^th overall, in a time of 22:02, 9 seconds faster than her Victoria Park time of two weeks ago.

It was good to see so many running buddies again at one of the friendliest events on the Scottish running scene and to catch up with some old friends over coffee at the Waterfront cafe.  I had ran my 127th parkrun.  Thanks to all for making it such an enjoyable day and good luck to Moira Nichol and Pat Smith who should both clock up their 100^th parkruns next week.. Who knows, I might clock up my 128^th.