To be honest, I’ve been shattered since the Men’s 10k on
Sunday. Whilst others celebrated their
successes, I returned to my kip for most of the day. I did surface in time to
catch
The Angel’s Share at the cinema though, a thoroughly entertaining and
thought provoking film, as you would expect from the Paul Laverty/Ken Loach
partnership. The award winning film* even had an unexpected cameo role for
former Killie favourite Andy McLaren thrown in for good measure.
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| Andy McLaren |
Although I was fortunate enough to take some leave on
Tuesday and catch a few of this year’s all too rare sunshine, there’s no hiding
the fact that I am still well below par.
I grabbed a quick nap, after visiting the Commonwealth Games Village with work, on Wednesday before cycling down to Glasgow
Green, where I hoped that an energy drink would transform me from my fatigue
into an athlete. Unfortunately my hope
was in vain and it was clear as I warmed up that my get up and go has gone for
the meantime. With the Jog Scotland
Glasgow 5k no longer being part of the Stewarts Grand Prix, the quality and quantity
of this year’s field was not as strong as previous ones. I had decided to run in my Jammy Henshite
vest and chatted with the other Jammies and numerous other running buddies
prior to the Start. A number of friends
commented on how well I was looking but I can assure you looks can be
deceitful.
 |
| Pic by Scott Photography |
At 7pm, three hundred of us were set on our way along a
zigzag 5k route round Glasgow Green. I
found myself running behind Gerry Gallacher and Angela Campbell and just in
front of Linda Kennedy. I was a bit
disappointed when I looked at my watch as we passed the 1k mark to see it
reading around 4:30. I can only assume
that the mark was in the wrong position as when my Garmin bleeped at 1mile, it
revealed that it had taken me only 6:48.
(Garmin later revealed that the 1
st k had actually taken
4:06). I was struggling, so I decided
to ease off the pace a bit and as I did Linda Kennedy passed me on the way to
smashing her 5k PB. I battled against
the negative thoughts for the middle part of the race, with only the knowledge
that, if Gerry and Angela were still in view, I must be doing better than I
thought, keeping me going. At the 3k
mark, I decided to try to finish the race with a better average pace than I had
run at the recent East End ‘5k’. Garmin
bleeped to reveal that the second mile had taken 7:15. A fellow Jammy gave me some words of encouragement as he overtook
me. I reached the 4k point in 17:41 and
climbed the wee hill, shortly after this I was overtaken by a Bellahouston
Harrier (Darren Murray). As we turned
right, Daren and Angela kept to the pavement but I decided to avoid the overhead
branches and took the, very slightly, longer road instead. I saw Darren overtaking Angela and I
realised that I was closing in on her too. As we reached the right turn into
the final strait, I made my move and ‘sprinted’ down the middle of the road,
overtaking another couple of runners before crossing the line in 56
th
position with a watch time of 21:57. (Gun Time 21:59).
 |
| Women's Winner Lesley Chisholm |
I
congratulated Cambuslang’s Jacqueline McLew, who took 22seconds off of her PB
to finish just behind me in 22:01 and then Angela, who had taking 13seconds off
of her PB, to place 8
th female (59
th overall) in 22:02. Gerry had placed 48th in 21:46, with Linda ahead in 42nd place (6th woman) in 21:29.
There
was no photo finish for Bellahouston Road Runner Keiran Docherty today as he
won the Men’s race by almost half a minute, in a time of 16:27. Derek Govan was runner-up in 16:56 and
Inverclyde’s Thomas Jamieson placed third in 17:04.
In
the women’s race it was Garscube’s Lesley Chisholm who earned Gold with a time
of 17:42, Glasgow based Inverness Harrier Lesley Clarkston changed down from
her Marathon runs to 5k for the first time and claimed runner-up with a time of
19:12, with the ever improving Jennifer Clark taking a further 12 seconds off
of her PB to earn third place in 19:25.
Another great event and, although I’m way below par at
the moment, I did manage to take more than 30 seconds off of me comparable time for the East End 5k, and I’m still enjoying being part of the wonderful Scottish running
community.
Results
*The Film won the prestigious Jury Prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival
.
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