Amanda's 100th, Ian's 50th and a couple of unexpected PBs, one with a gammy leg!

With no camera club meeting this week, due to the Easter break, I made an, all too rare, appearance at Bellahouston Harriers. I decided to run to and from the club and this, not only helped to chalk up another few miles, but also provided me with an extended warm up and warm down, before and after the 12x200m reps interval training, around the duck pond in Pollok Park.

Unfortunately, I must have pushed it a bit too much and ,by the time I got home, my right calf muscle had almost ceased up. Stretching, massage and rubbing ice cubes over the damage helped to ease off the tightness a bit and I continued the same treatment after my 'recovery' run on Wednesday. Sadly I had to miss out on the Club's 2 mile time trial on Thursday, as my leg just wasn't up to racing, although I did manage a jog around Bellahouston Park on Thursday and a similar one around, the slightly more undulating, Queens Park on Friday.

Happy Hundred for Amanda

I received a message informing me that Amanda Charles was completing her 100^th parkrun at Victoria Park on the Saturday and made my way over to the west end of the city. It was good to see a number of weel kent faces there, including Julie Gordon and Scott Martin, who were celebrating their achievements at the London Marathon by volunteering to help out at the sun kissed event. A number of running buddies were also making their debut at the weekly, Scotstoun 5k race, including: Nicola May; Annmarie Mcaffrey; Keith Gibb; Lindsay McMahon; and Brian and Nancy Barr. Ian McLeod was chalking up his 50^th parkrun.

After a wee warm up with Maggie and a lot of pre-race chatting, I lined up with some 197 other runners for the 9:30am Start. My intention was to do a tempo run and see how my leg reacted, so I started a little further from the front than usual. As we ran around the rose garden the road was blocked by one of Glasgow City Council's lorries, forcing runners either to squeeze past it or cross the grass, for each of the three laps.

I heard someone trying to overtake me and I increased the pace slightly and started to focus on picking off running budies in sight. A couple of shouts of encouragement from the volunteers and Duncan McGougan, on photography duties, helped me around the course. Still wary of my leg, I resisted the tempation of going flat out down the fnal strait but I did enough to cross the line in 43rd place, with a course PB of 21:12!

Resting my right leg - pic by Duncan McGoogan

As usual, I congratulated those around me before cheering Maggie over the line as she continued her Women's 10k training plan, chalking up a PB in the process.

Unforunately, I could feel my leg starting to stiffing and I tried to slacking it off with a warm down and some stretching, prior to making our way to Scotstoun for post race coffee, cake and banter.

We ventured down to Troon coast in the afternoon sun, where I hobbled along the beach path in an attempt to loosen it off some more. Sadly there would be no running in the Easter Sunday sun as I decided to give the leg a rest and help it recover.

I'd clocked up my 138th parkrun and my 5th at Victoria Park and ran my 540th mile of the year, so I'm maybe due a rest.

Congratulations also to Graeme Aitken who clocked up his 200th race of all time.

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