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| Strong Finish - pic by Kenny Phillips |
My fourth and slowest attempt at the
Scottish Veteran Harriers Club Relay Race at Strathclyde Park.
Having ran this race in 2008, 2011 and 2012. I've ran the first leg,
the third leg and the last leg, so it was good to complete the set by
running the second leg today. The weather conditions were horrible
as we made our way from Cartha to Strathclyde Park and they hadn't
improved by the time I did my 'warm up'. It was cold, wet and windy!
I've ran it in the cold wind before but not into the driving rain.
The only good thing was that the weather had kept other park users to
a minimum. It hadn't deterred may racers though and there was an
excellent turnout of teams from across the country participating. Not
least of all Bellahouston Harriers who had four male teams and two
female teams on display. I was running second leg in the third team
and had plenty of time to catch up with loads of running buddies before
I set off at just after 11:26am, following John Cunningham, who had
run the first leg.
Starting fourth and even third can be
difficult as by that time the race has opened up and it can be a
strange race, running round with no one in sight. That wasn't to be
the case this year though, as I set off some twenty seconds behind
Kilmarnock's Leslie McDerment, who is carrying a bit of weight these
days, after having a period of not running. Giving his 46:17 time at
the Ayr Turkey Trot, I was confident of catching him and set off with
that in mind. It wasn't long until we caught up with another ex-club
mate of mine, Bellahouston Road Runner, Maddie Smillie, who had set
off twenty three seconds before me. Maddie shouted words of
encouragement to me as I passed her and also mentioned that her feet
were like ice. They would get even colder later on as the course
took us through a number of deep puddles. My first kilometre was on
target but after this, although I was trying to stick with Les, he
slowly opened the gap. Just before the halfway point, I caught Jan
Fellows but it wasn't long until I was being overtaken, first by
Erica Christie and thenI actually lost a place in the men's race when
Calderglen's David Herbertson overtook me. I was would have liked
to have given both a better fight but it wasn't long until they were
increasing the gap on me and, like Les, running into the distance. I
guess I could console myself with the fact that it's not that long
since Les was a sub 38min 10k runner but I was still disappointed
with my performance. As I came over the brow of the second and last
hill, I thought I could see Sharyn Ramage of Edinburgh AC in the
distance and set off with the intention of closing the gap as much as
possible on her. With noisy supporters cheering us on at the beach,
I was sure I was catching her. She had started almost a minute in
front of me, so I was confident of beating her time but it would also
be good if I could pass her. I chased after along the end of the
loch and took my opportunity as we entered the Watersports Centre and
sprinted the last 270m until the Finish Line. I passed over to
Christopher Steward who set off on the third leg and took the time to
share congratulations with my fellow runners before having a warm
down.
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| Post Race Pic of me and Pre Race Pic of Phyllis Hands - Pic by Andrew Scott |
I was pleased with my finish but my
overall performance should have been better. That said conditions
were far from ideal. I've stepped up my training recently and I'm
confident that I'll see the results in the future. Spot the sign above saying "enough is enough"!
It was good to see Claire McCracken
sprinting to the Finish Line, with the fastest female lap of the day
and take the Bellahouston Women's A team to victory for the second
year in a row. Huge congratulations to them and well done to
everyone who participated in the event, especially the organisers, supporters and photographers who braved the horrible conditions, which to be fair did get better as the race progressed, now only if I'd ran the last leg......
