I’m wanting to include some races in my recovery but I’m
well aware that if I were to do ones which I’ve done before then I’d be in
danger of achieving PWs (personal worsts), instead I’ve decided to do ones
which I have participated in, therefore guaranteeing CBs (course bests) of
course SBs (seasonal bests) would be good too.
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| Fiona Edwards |
I therefore declined the opportunity to join with loads of
club mates and running buddies in doing the Paisley 10k on Sunday, deciding to
race the Perth 10k instead. My friend
Claire McCracken had also taking this decision and had offered to drive,
unfortunately she had an accident on Thursday and was unable to travel. She was gutted to miss it. As we had been the only Bellahouston Harriers
within the 600 registered for the race, there would now only be one starting
the 30th anniversary of the event.
However I still knew some of the other runners as Dumbarton
AAC had registred for the race in some numbers. There was also a few from the
local Perth club, Portobello, Kinross, Moray, Dundee, Aberdeen Metro, Edinburgh
and others that I’d met at various races
during the years. The very first person
I met though was Fiona Edwards, who is well known in the east coast running
scene for selling her home made tablet at races in aid of charity, as well as
regularly being amongst the age grade prize winners.
After much chatting, some warm up and numerous pit stops, I
lined up with 525 others on the grass at the Fair City’s North Inch park.They
seem to have a thing about Starting and Finishing on the grass in Perthshire as
the Crieff race does the same.
The route had been amended to reflect, as much as possible,
the original course of 1983 and race numbers had been doubled. There was a special commemorative medal and
running vest too. Well there would have been but they couldn’t find the Large
size ones.
By 11am it was a little warm and humid but other than that,
almost perfect running conditions. It
was a bit congested as we made our way over the electonic timing mats and
across the grass for the first 400m or so before joining the path and
completing a loop and a half of the Inch.
We then made our way northwards, along the riverside path, with
the River Tay on our right hand side. I
had hoped that some of the course would be scenic and I wasn’t disappointed. I was happy enough with my pace and was
slowly picking my way up through the field.
On a few occasions, I had thought “I’ll just sit in with this pack” but
I had then chased after the pack in front.
I was looking forward to my bottle of water just after the 5k point, I
wasn’t feeling paticularly thirsty but I did have a bit of a drouth. I took a wee drink and poured the rest over
me, suitably refreshed the race was now about to begin. However the path was congested as a group of
ramblers were also taking advantage of the weather to enjoy the fresh air and
scenery. After the very sharp turn, I thought I spied the black and red of a
Dumbarton runner in the distance and set off to try and catch them but the trail
path was narrow, the 6th k was to be my slowest of the race. The route was less scenic, with trees on one
side and the back of the North Muirton houses on the other, I tried to
negotiate my way past my fellow runners and I caught glance of the Dumbarton
runner taking a slight wrong turn ahead, before we rejoined the riverside path
and was unexpectedly handed another bottle of water.
I was narrowing the gap but was still a good bit behind, I
wasn’t sure if I would catch her but she had helped me to run a strong second
half of the race. The 9k mark came to
soon and I was a little confused to find myself dashing across the grass
towards the finishing line so soon.
 |
| Job Done |
I crossed the line in a time of 46:20, to place 184th
just two places and 2 seconds behind Dumbarton’s Helen Roxburgh. I congratulated her on her PB and chatted to
the other runners. The general consensus
being that the distance had been around 6:05miles, although GPSs are not great in
the trees of parks, a later look at the route revealed that marshals should
have directed us out towards Harley Place and then left back onto the route,
prior to the 9k marker.
Of course, you can only run the race that you’re given and
most people seemed happy with their ‘PBs’.
I was happy enough with my performance and had enjoyed the race, I’m
glad it wasn’t a PB though.
RESULTS
Local club runner Greig Simpson was first over the line, in
33:08, followed by Craig Harvey, Squarda Porcini, in 33:15 and Gordon Barrie,
Dundee, in 33:28. Dumbarton pair Peter
Currie and Jim Waters placed 4th and 5th in 35:15 and
35:17 respectively.
Strathearn’s Patrick O’Kane won the M50+ race, with a time
of 36:11.
In the Women’s Race, Fife’s Sheena Logan placed first in
37:04; Dundee’s Louise (Lou Lou) Beveridge was runner up in 37:20 and Abroath’s
Gillian Sangster earned Bronze with a time of 37:33.
Fiona Edwards won the FV50+ race with a time of 42:09.
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