My 33rd parkrun

I wasn’t sure if I would be running in the 57th Glasgow parkrun on Saturday, January 23 or the Vet Relay races on Sunday, January 24. However when I hadn’t heard anything on Friday evening, I made a quick stop to the local Oddbins to get some half decent French wine. Unfortunately this meant that I was feeling a wee bit rough on Saturday morning and this combined with my heavy legs indicated that I would not be getting a PB this week. Indeed I told my friends that I would be taking it easy and even informed Erica that it would be her turn to win as I wasn’t racing.

There was a bumper turnout as the numbers came out in force to celebrate Glasgow parkrun’s return to its traditional on-road format. An impressive 231 runners joined me in braving the sub zero temperatures and the testing, hilly course.

I set off just in front of Keith Gibb and behind Erica, I noticed Jeff Farquhar shooting off in front and I tucked in with the masses as we made our way down hill on the road part of the course. As we turned left and approached the first puddle, I found myself running shoulder by shoulder with another runner that I recognised but didn’t know his name. I wasn’t out to race him though and let him run in front and into the distance. I must have passed Erica as when we turned the next left into the wooded part of the route, she overtook me. I would have been happy to sit behind her but she slowed down and I decided to maintain my early speed. Keith caught up with me on the ‘glade’ and commented on the fact that I was running faster than I had predicted. I gave a short grunt in way of an answer and when he started to chat, I put the foot down and ran away from him. I’m sorry I just wasn’t up for a run/chat.

Keith, Me -looking rough and Erica lurking behind us - pic by Gill Williamson

As I approached the sharp left turn at the bottom of the glade, I noticed Erica on my shoulder and decided to increase my pace to keep her at bay. However I was starting to feel a bit worse for weather and when she caught me the third time I let her go without a chase. I was now running along beside a guy with a Scottish Vet vest on and wondered what it would have looked like if I had worn mine too.


Two Scottish Vets - pic by Gill Williamson

In the second lap of the race I could see Erica ahead and decided that I would try to finish as close to her as possible. However as I ran down the glade I could hear someone’s heavy breathing right behind me. I increased the pace and lost them for a while but as I made my way up the hills I could hear them again. My tactics in this event is to work hard up the last hill and then make a dash for it knowing that their will be a long down hill section as we approach the finish. I did this and the sound of heavy breathing disappeared. Although Erica was out of site, I increased my stride and caught a couple of guys with my strong finish to place 51st with an acceptable time of 22:12. Erica had placed 47th with 21:51, Alistair KERR the Scot Vet had placed 48th in 22:00, Keith had had a strong finish to place 53rd with 22:17 and the heavy breather who turned out to be asthma sufferer Ada Stewart 55th in 22:20.

Men’s League
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that as I had also acted as a volunteer at the event, by doing the race write up, my points had been increased to 100, giving me a total of 493 and taking me to third in the table, behind Al MacLachlan on 553 and that man John Gilhooly on 595. I wonder if that guy who had ran shoulder to shoulder with me at the start was the said Mr Gilhooly?


Vet Relays
As it happened I was too late to represent Killie at the Vet's Relays, the club had a good turnout, with their A team placing third.


Full Results

My first race in a Kilmarnock Harrier Vest

I managed my second race of MMX on Saturday, January 16. I knew that the Glasgow parkrun had an inspection at 8:15am, so I wasn’t sure if it would be on or not so although I stayed in on Friday, I had a rather pleasant bottle of Rioja Reserve.

Cross Country – Week Two
When I arrived at Pollok Park the car park was like an ice rink, so I wasn’t entirely surprised when Richard advised me that the road was too dangerous and we would be using the off road course for the second time in succession.

I hadn’t envisaged this and therefore hadn’t brought my spikes. After a short warm up I met up with Alasdair Murray of Kilmarnock Harriers who had arranged to bring my new club vest for me. Bearing in mind what the Killie Captain Connell Drummond had once said about a club vest not being an over-garment, I decided that I would run the race in my shorts and vest. Strangely enough I was the only one of the 60 runners who decided to do so. There were other runners who had arrived but decided to miss out on a cross country race.

We headed to where the race started last week, only to discover that we were blocked by a giant puddle. We about turned and made our way further down the road and around the puddles to a different start place where the three-lap course details were explained to us. The volunteers were at pains to point out how dangerous the course was, with a lot of ice on the ground.


The Off
The race started and we made our way around the perimeter of the first field, not too bad until we neared the bottom where we had to take a detour to avoid a large frozen puddle, over an ice covered wooden bridge and off to our left. There was a lot of ice to be negotiated here before a sharp left turn took us along the bottom of the playing field and then through some deep puddles to the far side. I thought at this stage that the course was too dangerous and thought seriously about quitting after the first lap. However it wasn’t too bad under the trees, a sharp left turn, a right turn and a left turn along behind the goals of the all weather pitch. Left turn along the side of the pitch and then right towards the road, left on the road and then back on the field to the start. One lap done and I was still in front of Alasdair and Erica, so I decided that I might as well complete the race. Not too much of a surprise given that I’ve never failed to finish one.

I was about a third of the way around lap two when Alasdair caught me and commented on my great looking vest as he overtook me. He ran into the distance as I continued my steady running, cautious of the underfoot conditions. I did increase the speed a little under the trees and continued around to the end of the second lap. This time I was overtaken by a couple of runners that I didn’t recognise, I didn’t chase after them but I did take the opportunity at the next bend to glance back and see if Erica or anyone else I knew was close to me. No one was close to me and I couldn’t make out the runners in the distance. I did my usual faster run down under the trees and as I approached the road the two guys who had overtaken me were in my sights. “C’mon Kilmarnock” enthused one of the marshals as I took the opportunity to push that little harder and catch and overtake them both. There was another runner in front but as I increased my pace to catch him, he with the end in sight was also digging deep. I thought my chance had gone but I was delighted to catch him and finish two seconds in front of him with a time of 23:39. My Garmin indicated that this week’s course was 5.04K.

Dissapointed
I was slightly disappointed however when I collected my token to see that I was in 21st place, one down from last week. I congratulated the three guys behind me and made my way to the race HQ, where I handed in my token and handed out some copies of the Scottish Running Guide before heading to my car for my running jacket and doing my post race warm down.

20th and 2nd Killie
When the results were published, later in the day, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had placed 20th, only two places behind the other Killie runner, Alasdair Murray who was a good bit in front of me with a time of 22:58. However he is a sub 20 min runner on the traditional Glasgow parkrun course.

Gil Who?
One place in front of me was a guy by the name of John Gilhooly, with 23:21. I half recognised the name and when I looked back at the records I noticed that he had beaten me on Christmas Day but I had returned the favour on Boxing Day. He had beaten me by two places and 27 seconds last week but I had narrowed the gap to one place and 18 seconds this week. He’s about the same age as me and it’s always good to have a runner of similar ability to target in a race. I’ll look out for him in the future and see what happens.

Erica Who?
I had a wee chat with Erica after the race and pointed out that in all the years that we have ran together, this was only my second ever time beating her. “Last week must have been the first then” she wisely pointed out.

Selected Results
18 Alasdair MURRAY
• 22:58 VM40-44 • 60.30% M Kilmarnock Harrier & A.C
Your PB remains at 19:52

19 John GILHOOLY
• 23:21 VM50-54 • 63.17% M Unattached Your PB remains at 21:49

20 Ian GOUDIE
• 23:39 VM50-54 • 63.35% M Scottish Veteran Harriers Club
Your PB remains at 21:18

21 Paul SINNOTT
• 23:41 SM35-39 • 56.79% M Unattached
First Run Congratulations on completing your 1st event!

22 Stephen POPE
• 23:42 SM30-34 • 55.34% M Unattached Your PB remains at 22:58

23 Douglas POPE
• 23:43 SM25-29 • 54.46% M Unattached
New PB Improved by 144 seconds

24 David BOAG
• 24:07 VM40-44 • 57.91% M Unattached Your PB remains at 22:12

25 Clare BARR
• 24:21 VW40-44 • 63.38% F Motherwell AC
Your PB remains at 21:42

26 Stephen Kenneth WILSON
• 24:35 VM40-44 • 57.22% M Unattached
First Run Congratulations on completing your 1st event!

27 Erica CHRISTIE
• 24:39 VW50-54 • 71.33% F Bellahouston Harriers
Your PB remains at 20:06

First Race of 2010

Well it was a wee bit later than I hoped for but I managed to get my first race of the decade under my belt. The volunteers at the Glasgow parkrun, faced with a dangerous first and second choice route managed to design a new off-road course and secured agreement from the management of Pollok Park to allow an event to be held on the snow covered fields of the south Glasgow park.

Some fifty-five hardy souls turned up on Saturday, January 9 to participate in the first Glasgow parkrun of the decade. I had decided to wear my spikes, well let’s face it they don’t get used that often and they do look good! After exchanging New Year greetings with fellow runners we assembled at a new start point to be advised of the day’s course route, which would see runners making their way around three laps around snow covered football and hockey pitches.

Without further adieu we were off with Gerry Scullion leading the way. I started near the front but by the time the route made its first turn I had been overtaken by what seemed like everybody. We made our way along the perimeter of one of the pitches, when we reached the far side of the pitch the snow wasn’t as deep, as the path had been protected by some trees. I was able to overtake a few runners here and found myself a couple of places behind Christopher McKiddie. I know that Chris is a lot faster and younger than me and decided that I would try to finish as close to him as possible. A few times I thought I might be able to catch him but he managed to increase the pace and the gap increased rather decreased. However he was still in my sights. I was also aware that Erica Christie must still behind me somewhere and I was hopeful that if I focused on Chris and even those ahead of him, I might be able to hold off the expected challenge of Erica.

As we started our third and final lap, I was immediately behind Chris. Maybe, just maybe I would be able to catch him. However to do this I would need to get closer to him and as we ran along the side of the pitch he increased his lead. Under the trees I could hear steps as someone tried to overtake me. I dug deep to hold them off and at the next corner I had made up on Chris and another runner and took my opportunity. A sharp right, followed by a sharp left, one step on the icy road and another left and right saw us heading towards the start/finish. I was trying to work out where the finish line was and whether the runner in front of me was on his second or final lap when I was overtaken by a bearded runner. I sprinted after him, overtaken the other runner as vended right and approached the finish line.

I placed 20th with a time of 25:04, Christopher was two places behind with 25:06 and Erica 29th with 26:42. I had beaten Chris for the first time. I’ve ran in the same races as Erica for well over ten years and this is the first time I had beaten her, although she still placed first woman. Despite my performance I was still disappointed with my time. However the results show that most people were around five minutes slower than their usual Glasgow parkrun times. Indeed no-one timed under 20:00 minutes on the day. My Garmin revealed that the course was actually 3.21 miles long. I checked Chris and Erica’s PBs to discover that Chris has done the traditional hard route in 19:19 and Erica in 20:06, whereas my PB stands at 21:18. So all and all, although the record books won’t show it, it was a good performance for me in my first race of the ‘teenies’.
Selected Results:

19 Fraser Clark 25:00
20 Ian Goudie 25:04
21 Chris Chennell 25:05
22 Chris McKiddie 25:06
29 Erica Christie 26:42
41 Graeme Aitken 30:45

Full results here: http://www.parkrun.org.uk/glasgow/Results.aspx
Photos: http://www.parkrun.org.uk/glasgow/Photos.aspx

myRace - my pic

There’s a smashing photo of me in the new electronic version of myRace in the report on the first anniversary of the Glasgow parkrun. It’s taken by regular Glasgow parkrun photographer Gill Williamson and it shows me leading a couple of other runners at about the half way point of the 5k Pollok Park course.

You can sign up to myRace here.

New Year, New Challenges

I’ve been wondering what challenges to set myself this year. My running showed steady progress last year but I still feel that there is more to come as my fitness level improves. However the adverse weather isn’t good for running and a number of the races over the Festive period that I had planned to do were either cancelled or postponed. I’ve only managed a few runs outdoors and have resorted to the gym and treadmill instead. My training indicates that I’m doing well but the lack of races hasn’t afforded me the opportunity to test this for real. I’ve only in the last few days managed to get a wee bit cycling in and I haven’t to-date managed any swimming!

Marathon and PBs
I’ve been offered the chance of a free place in the Lochaber Marathon on April 18th and although I don’t know if I have it yet or not I have started my marathon training programme. I’ve been very ambitious though and decided to train for a 3:15 marathon time, which in theory should enable me to achieve my ambitions of a 20 min 5k and a 40 min 10k.

Goals
So there we have the goals, a new PB at marathon, half, 10k and 5k distances. A sub 20min 5k and sub 40min 10k and just to round it off I’ll aim to run 2010 miles this year as well. You’ve got to aim high!