Pre Renfrewshire XC Warm Up

A photo of me enjoying my warm up prior to the recent Renfrewshire XC relay race, taken by Gerry Gallacher.

It was a cold autumn morning in Glasgow......

I’ve been struggling with a touch of the cold and, to be honest, some post-holiday blues this week so I decided that it would be best to give the national cross country relays at Cumbernauld a miss this year.  I still wanted a wee run on the Saturday though and had planned to go out around noon, to get whatever heat there was.

However an early night resulted in me wakening up bright and early on a bright and frosty morning with temperatures dropping below zero.  After tea and toast in bed, I decided to run my 114^th parkrun.  Well wrapped up, I scraped the ice off of the car and drove along to Pollok Park, where I joined 294 runners for the 9:30am Start. 

Despite having a half decent ‘warm up’ my legs were still feeling heavy as I started the Glasgow 5k race the 99^th time.  There was nothing I could do as a number of my running buddies darted downhill, leaving me slugging away behind them.  I ended up playing leap frog with a couple of runners before I managed to forge a gap.  That said I was sure that they wouldn’t be too far behind and that any let up on my part would be punished.  As usual, I tried to concentrate more on those in front and tried to get as close as possible to them as the race progressed.  I upped the pace and felt it straight away with 3k under my belt and pushed in more for the final kilometre and sprinted down the final 200m as if every second was a prisoner.

Of course, I would break no records today but I was happy enough to cross the line in a time of 22:16, in 67^th place.  I was a bit surprised to discover that this was actually the second fastest that I’ve run the course this year and was a whole minute faster than my last outing, on 6^th October.  So all and all not a bad showing, relatively speaking of course.

A quick ‘warm down’ and I was back in the Burrell, warming myself with a hot cup of coffee before returning home for breakfast and back to bed for a rest.  I listened to the Celtic v Kilmarnock league game and Killie won at Celtic Park for the first time in my life. Or did I dream that?

There were a number of outstanding performances at Glasgow, not least of all were those of: Clare MacAulay who continued her amazing improvement to win the women’s race, for the first time, with a new PB of 19:28; Sylvia Mulholland who finished in the top 100 for the first time, placing 86^th and 5^th woman, with a PB of 23:06;  and Derek Buchanan who smashed his previous personal best to finish in a time of 28:29.  Well done to you all, to the volunteers who make the event such a success and, of course, to everyone connected with the famous Ayrshire Killie.... "I realise the way your eyes deceived me.........."

National Conservation Centre

Scotland's first National Conservation Centre for training young people in, and the showcasing of, traditional building skills is to be established in Stirling.

The NCC will help sustain and develop the traditional building skills needed to secure the future of Scotland's historic environment. Located in the Forthside area of Stirling, the NCC will be based in a former railway engine shed.

I had the opportunity to take a few photos of the inside of the shed prior to work commencing on the new centre. The architects hope to retain much of the character and the fantastic light in the new building. I do hope that they are successful in their venture.

 Although I'm not sure that they'll retain the graffiti.

Better Performance at Bella?

The heavy rain during last week made for extremely heavy conditions at Bellahouston Park on Saturday afternoon for the Renfrewshire Cross Country Championships.  The Senior Men and Women races take part at the same time, with three women making up a team, whilst the men’s teams consisted of four runners.   Once again I was in the Bella Harriers B Team but this week I was running the final, aka glory, leg.  The kids’ races took longer than anticipated to complete and I had a long wait before getting my chance to run around the 4000m course. 

Pic by Jim Carson

This gave me time to chat with those who had completed the first leg and I was surprised to hear that most of them were taking longer today than last week.  This was a bit of a disappointment as I was so keen to run faster than last week.  By the time that I set off there was no one to be seen in front of me.  I saw Barry Edwards doing his warm down along the course and set off to catch up with him.  The course was by now very heavy going and I made my way through the mud and puddles catching Barry and then running entirely on my own along side the pitch and putt park and around the back of the velodrome before heading through the most flooded part of the course and uphill slightly.  I felt as if I was working hard but there was nothing I could do when a Greenock Glenpark runner caught me.  Although I did try and latch on to him and use him in a positive way, he was a faster runner than me. 

The only negative point was in the final strait when I gave it my all as I approached the line.  Although I was following Ross, the marshal was vociferously directing me to the other Finish tunnel; I changed my direction accordingly but then noticed the marshal at that tunnel directing me into the initial tunnel.  I changed direction again and crossed the line with my watch indicating 18:59.  I know that the marshal’s are volunteers and that they were doing there best so I didn’t let it get to me.  Although I was slightly less accommodating when I found out that my official time was 19:00, as I must have lost at least a second because of the misdirection at the end. 

However the official results also had me starting in 15^th place and finishing in 15^th place, which confused me.

Better Performance

Although I had taken 3 or 4 more seconds to complete the course than last week, I felt that I had performed better.  Garmin users have advised me that this week’s course was 400m longer than the one at Kilmarnock, which would explain why my time was slower, when I had felt that I had run faster.

My team placed 15^th out of 21, although to be fair 4 of the others were incomplete teams.  Graeme Gemmell had stepped down from the A team as he had to leave early and ran the first leg in a great time of 15:49; Stu Mullholand ran the second leg in 17:07 and Ally Shields the third leg in 17:08.

Our A Team placed 7^th and the C team 19^th

Silver Ladies

In the Women’s Relay a fantastic effort from our A team of Claire MacAulay; Kristina Greig and Bernie O’Neil earned them runners up spot to a very strong Kilbarchan Team.  With an impressive total of four Bella Harrier Women’s Teams the B team placed 6^th, the C team 9^th and the D team 10^th.  Congratulations to them all especially those running in their first ever cross country race.

Glasgow parkrun 20 Oct 12

Glasgow parkrun 20 Oct 12, a set on Flickr.

With the Renfrewshire Cross Country Championships being held on Saturday afternoon, I took the opportunity of having a race free Saturday morning to try my new camera lens in the light challenging woods of Pollok Park and capture most of the racers taking part in the local parkrun, oh and a couple of highland coos too!

Maddie Necel @ Chatelherault

Huge thanks to fellow photographer James Sommerville and model Maddie Necel for allowing me to gate crash their photo shoot in Chatelherault Country Park on Sunday and to take a few photos whilst my running buddies tucked into their post run assortment of soups and cakes.

more here

West District Cross Country Championships

Saturday 13^th October 2012 and I wear the vest of Bellahouston Harriers for the first time, some 120 years after the south Glasgow was established.  As luck would have it, my first donning of the famous St Andrew’s cross was at the home of my previous club, the 125 year old Kilmarnock Harriers.  The occasion was the West District Cross Country Championships and the rain during the week, the long grass and the hills all contributed to making the 4000m course testing, to say the least.  However conditions on the day were near perfect as the previous rain was replaced by a wind free and sunny Saturday in Ayrshire.

Pic by Kenny Phillips

There were some great performances on the day, with Kilbarchan retaining their senior women’s title with Ron Hill Cambuslang in second place and Victoria Park-Glasgow earning bronze.  In the women’s vets race it was Springburn who earned Gold with Bella Harriers team of Clare MacAulay, Angie Carson and Bernie O’Neil all having great runs to place second.

 

I was in the Bella Harriers’ mens ‘B’ team alongside fellow super vet Stuart Mulholland; Ian Anscombe and Stephen xxx.  I think it’s fair to say that we set off according to ability, with Stuart doing the first leg, myself doing the second, Ian the third and Stephen the final one.  Although I felt that I was working hard, I lost a number of places. On a good day I would have been able to beat some of those that past me but unfortunately my effort just wasnt good enough and it took me 18:56 to run my 4000m.  It was still the second fastest of the ‘B’ team but there’s room for a lot of improvement.

 

Chatelherault Sunday Run

 

Sunday 14^th and I decided to join up with some running buddies and do some off road running along the hills and trails in Chatelherault Country Park.  Although it was just a social run, I wanted to use it in preparation to next week’s cross country races and I was pleased with my work rate and speed around the 7.5mile, undulating, route before rewarding myself with a bacon roll, hot coffee and friendly banter with friends old and new.

 

 

 

Back in Scotland: Racing and Taking Photos.

Back home to cold but sunny Scotland and back to running, following an easy run on Thursday, I took in the Glasgow parkrun on Saturday morning.  Starting beside Club mates John Softley and Robert Carson, my aim was simply to get my 98^th Glasgow parkrun under my belt.  

Most of the Bellahouston Harrier regular parkrunners were however absent as the event clashed with the Club’s Annual Training Weekend.  As the race settled down, I started to work a wee bit harder with the aim of placing first Bella Harrier.  I was happy enough to place 101^st in a time of 23:16 but it wasn’t good enough as the results show that a Bellahouston Harrier called Sean Botha ran a PB to place 82nd with a time of 22:31, leaving me second best.  Amongst those earning a PB in the autumn sunshine was Mary Fraser who smashed the 27minute barrier for the first time, completing the undulating 5k course in a time of 26:51.

Results

Carole Setchell in the MacAndrew Relay

In the afternoon, I drove over to Jordanhill to give my new lens a wee test in taking some photos of the MacAndrew Road Relay Races.  There were a few runners in Bella vests that I didn’t recognise but there were also some weel kent faces too, not least of all John Softley and Derek Shand who had both participated in the morning’s parkrun.

Photos here

Results

3k Finish - pic by Karen Craig

After my recent travels it was good to catch up with my buddies in Sammy Dows, although I think I may have had a little too much to drink.  However I was up bright and early and on my way to East Dunbartonshire to take part in the 3k race and take some pics of the Half Marathon runners as they commemorated the life of local policeman and Kirkintilloch Olympian Neil McCover.  The race also includes the British Masters Championship and the Neil McCover Cup for the first police person. 

Although most of the 3k runners were youngsters, again I was happy enough with my performance, placing 14^th out of 50 with a time of 12:02. 

Scott and Cammy

It was good to see so many old and a few new running buddies and to capture some of them with the camera.  I shouldn’t really have been surprised to see John Softley running in the Half and it was particularly good to get the chance to chat with some Kirkintilloch Olympians and Kilmarnock prize wining pair, Scott Martin and Cammy Wilson.

3k and Half Marathon Results

Photos (to follow)