Deepest Lanarkshire

_MG_8493, a photo by Ian Goudie Photography on Flickr.

I had a wee trip to Ravenscraig the other day and took a couple of photos when I was there.

Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility

Ravenscraig No More!

More-vember

I made up More-vember in order to keep myself motivated during November. I knew that it would be a tough month, as the long dark nights, cold, wind and rain combined with post holiday blues to make any training both physically and mentally challenging.  It wasn’t for nothing that the Anglo Saxons called November the wind month. Mind you the Finns called it ‘marraskuu’ or the death month!

My goal was simple: to run and cycle more this November than any other in my life.

With my records revealing that the maximum number of miles that I had run in the eleventh month of the year was 108 (176km) it seemed not too much to attempt.  That said, I had only managed 79 miles last year.  As far as cycling was concerned my best November was last year (2011), when I cycled some 69 miles.

Barring accidents, both targets were achievable and I’m glad to say that I’ve reached them with some time to spare.  I managed to surpass my running target on Monday 26 November, with 109 miles and my cycling target the next day, when I clocked up my 72nd mile.

My Morevember has taken a total of 22hours and 29mins and saw me covering some 181 miles. Not too bad a way to spend almost a day in the death month.

Now it’s on to December and the Marcothon.

Modern Vampire Queen

Modern Vampire Queen, a photo by Heilster Hieroglyphics on Flickr.

One of a series of photos taken in a studio at the weekend.

Stirling @ Night

It was freezing on Sunday night but I had agreed to join a couple of photographers for a photo shoot in Stirling. Unfortunately the Castle was getting prepared for a forthcoming Rod Stewart Xmas Special Concert but we still managed to take a few shots. Here's a few of mine. I hope you like them.

My 100th Glasgow parkrun

I ran my 100th Glasgow parkrun on Saturday.  It was a cold morning and the old bones and muscles didn’t respond too keenly to my pre-race warm up, so I wasn’t expecting much as I set off with some 340 other races at 9:30am in Pollok Park.  With the county cross country races taking place later on the day, a number of the usual club runners were noticeable by their absence.  I started a bit closer to the front than usual but it wasn’t long until I was left behind as dozens and dozens of runners sprinted past me in the first kilometre.  Although I thought I was working quite hard, I was feeling sluggish and was disappointed with myself as a number of runners, who I could once upon a time hold my own with, left me in their trail.

I stuck to my task and started working up the field as the route turned left into the woods and then right up hill.  I had a bit of a tussle during the second kilometre as a runner kept on trying to pass me on the inside. His pushing and jostling was putting me off but there was no way that I was going to let him beat me, so after he passed me and pulled in right in front of me, I stepped out to the left and increased the pace significantly to build a gap between us.  Not wanting to have negative thoughts, I started to refocus my race on those in front of me.  David Mitchell from Kilmaurs was about six places in front of me and I set out to finish as close to him as possible.  There’s a flat but narrow path alongside a stream that runs through the park and, although it’s quite short, I pushed in hard and managed to catch a few runners, I worked hard up the wee hill and as I turned left onto the main drag, I could see that David wasn’t too far in front.  I tried not to focus on him and looked ahead, where I could see Graeme Pert, who is having a great season.  Unusually I started lapping people at this point and with 2 miles under my belt I caught David and set off after Graeme, I was surprised to catch him so soon and I kept working hard to ensure that neither he nor David could catch me.  The last kilometre was sheer determination and I sprinted down the last 200m as if every second and indeed every place was a prisoner.

Result

I was pleasantly surprised to look at my watch and see a time of 21:56, twenty seconds quicker than my last Glasgow park run, two weeks ago, and a course Season Best.  It was my fastest 5k in a Bellahouston Harrier vest and whilst I know that I should be running faster, it still represents steady progress and a 70%+ WAVA is always good in my books.  For the record, I placed 78th out of 341 participants.   I had set reaching 100 Glasgow parkruns as one of my targets for the year, I’ve actually ran a total of 115 parkruns and I’m now looking forward to (re)visiting some of the other ones in the weeks ahead.

There was no cake or other celebrations awaiting me at the Burrell Café, I’d had that when I had reached my 100th park run total  but a number of fellow runners and volunteers did take the time to congratulate me.  I was however a bit overwhelmed and more than a little humbled to see that I had almost 100 " likes" on Facebook for my persistent plodding.

There’s been a number of different routes used during my 100 Glasgow parkruns as flooding, snow and ice have all impacted on the official course, I’ve ran in snow, rain and sunshine and I’ve been joined with as few as 21 other hardy souls to as many as 478 runners, as I’ve run over 310 miles around Pollok Park.  I’ve seen many new people come along and noticed some people get out of the habit of their Saturday morning runs, I’ve made a lot of friends along the way and I’d like to thank them all and the many, many volunteers for making every 1 of my 100 Glasgow parkruns special in their own way.


Full Results

Glasgow Mo 5k Race 2012

Last year I took part in the inaugural Glasgow Mo 5k race and placed 1^st MV50 and 17^th overall out of the 173 people who completed the charity event in Glasgow Green.  This year the organisers added a 10k race and, despite the Jimmy Irvine 10k and the Glasgow parkrun 5k both taking place in Glasgow in the same morning, managed to attract a total of 468 runners, many of them sporting either real or fake moustaches,  in support of Movember and their fundraising for Men’s Health and in particular Prostate Cancer.  Although having a bit of a cold, I decided to take part in the 5k and see if I could retain my Super Vet record.  I had also got into the spirit of things by growing a bit of a moustache and by wearing my Jammys running vest.

Start Line, Lynsey on the left and me on the right

I paid my £15 entry fee, warmed up and lined up with another 115 runners for the 10:20am Start.  I didn’t recognise any of those around me at the Start and decided to lead from the go.  I sprinted off, over the mats, around the monument and followed the lead bike along the paths. I was a bit confused to see the bike veering off to my right as I was directed straight on and around some bollards before returning to the path and behind the bike.  The 1^st kilometre had taken me an acceptable 4:12 but unfortunately I couldn’t maintain the pace and was overtaken by a handful or runners, including Lynsey Mackintosh as we made our way down towards the River Clyde and the Glasgow Green 3k route.  The second kilometre took me a disappointing 4:35 but by now the race had settled down and I was sure that I was leading the Super Vet Race.  I held off the challenge from someone for a while but he caught me just after the turn. I was glad to see that he was a youngster and I managed to stick in behind. The 3^rd k taking me 4:38, “not too bad” I thought as it had included a tight turn.  I managed to catch up with the other runner and after running beside him for a while, overtook him with the 4^th k taken me 4:27. Although I increased the pace a bit more for the final kilometre, I couldn’t stop him from overtaking me and leaving me behind.  That said, I did work hard and managed to complete the final and 5^th kilometre in 4:16, to cross the line in a time of 22:11. 

Finished

I fed my race number into the machine and pointed out to the organisers that the print out only contained my name and number and not my time and place.  “That’s ok, it’s set up for the 10k race” I was informed.  I congratulated Lynsey for being the first woman, I think she had finished two places ahead of me and asked her if she had placed 4^th but her boyfriend said that she had placed third, which would have made me 5^th .  I didn’t want to get too cold, so after chatting some more, I warmed down on my way back to the car, cheering on the other runners on my way.

Lynsey Wins!

I was a bit shocked when I checked the results on line to discover that, despite the use of electronic chips, my time was being displayed as 36:26!! Even worse was the fact that they had two other MV50+ crossing the line in 20:57 followed by another two runners crossing the line in 21:42.  Something was amiss and I’ve emailed the organisers to inform them of the anomalies but although it would be good to have won the MV50+ race again, I suppose it doesn’t really matter that much.  My time wasn’t great but it was 5 seconds faster than my last 5k of two weeks ago and my 4^th fastest of 2012 and it was for a good cause.

Results http://glasgow.mo-running.com/results-2012/#10k


Pics by Dafydd George Cuthbertson

Charlene - Studio Shoot

Charlene, a set on Flickr.

Fitness and Fashion Studio Shoot with Charlene

Charlene

Charlene_0155, a photo by Heilster Hieroglyphics on Flickr.