Fast, Flat, Cold and Windy 3k on the Green

Unfortunately I've not made it along to the 3k on the Green nearly as often as I would have liked. In fact, I've only actually raced the charity event a total of five times:

5 Nov 2010 – 11:50

25 Feb 2011 – 11:59

28 Oct 2011 – 12:21

27 July 2012 - 12:46

27 Sept 2013 – 12:53

I was a bit surprised to see how steady my decline has been since my first race, my times have consistently got longer (worse) as the months and years have passed. It was maybe just as well that I didn't check my times before heading along to take part in the increasingly popular event for the sixth time. There were a few friends there that had also took part on 5 Nov 2010, including: Al Maclachlan, Clare Barr, Graeme Aitken and Tony Quinn and also a number who were participating in the flat, fast and accurately measured race for the first time, including John Softley.

It was a lot colder than I was expecting and very windy too but some 61 runners lined up at the Start, an increase of 11 on last month and 25 on last year! There were a number of pre-race announcements, which drew well deserved applause, although some of this may have also been the runners warming their hands prior to the race. I started quite near the front and shot off with some of the faster runners right from the go. I knew that I was running faster than usual and just hoped that I could retain a decent pace for the 3k. I found myself around or within sight of runners who are usually well in front of me but took some confidence from a couple of less athletic looking runners who were running at the same pace, although I've learned over the years never to judge a runner by their appearance or running style.

I heard the footsteps of a female runner closing in on me and dug a little deeper as I approached the turn point. I thought it might have been Erica Christie but I noticed that she was a bit further behind me after I turned. I caught a few runners in the second half and was closing in on another when a runner sprinted past me as we entered the final strait. I was working hard and was appreciative of the shouts of encouragement from my friends as I sprinted over the line in a time of 11:58, to place 25^th.

After getting my breath back, I exchanged mutual congratulatons with loads of other runners before thanking the volunteers and warming down. My records were later to reveal that I had run my second fastest ever 3k on the Green and I had achieved a WAVA of 73.72%, my best in 40 months and one of my best ever.  

Many thanks to all involved.

Full Results

Mar 14			3k Race on the Green
Runner	Category	M/F	Club			Race Time
1	Peter Avent	Senior	M	Lasswade	00:09:08
2	Ciaran Dougherty	Senior	M	Bellahouston Roadrunners	00:09:42
3	Steven Prentice	Senior	M	Bellahouston Harriers	00:09:46
4	Bob Reid	Senior	M	Bellahouston Roadrunners	00:09:48
5	Graham McCabe	Veteran	M	Kirkintilloch Olympians	00:09:57
6	John Denovan	Senior	M	Westerlands	00:09:59
7	Andrew White	Veteran	M	Greenock Glenpark Harriers	00:10:05
8	Sean Reid	Senior	M			00:10:11
9	Shazad Hakeem	Senior	M	Ronhill Cambuslang	00:10:19
10	Andrew Wright	Senior	M			00:10:21
11	Euan Craig	Senior	M	Kirkintilloch Olympians	00:10:28
12	Chris Marsh	Senior	M	Giffnock North	00:10:29
13	Alastair Andrew	Senior	M			00:10:39
14	James Grieve	Senior	M	Athelite Triathlon Club	00:10:59
15	Chris Watson	Senior	M	Greenock Glenpark Harriers	00:11:02
16	Anthony Quinn	Super Veteran	M	Cartha Harriers	00:11:05
17	Mark Ashby	Super Veteran	M	Victoria Park	00:11:12
18	Christopher McKiddie	Senior	M			00:11:14
19	Alastair MacLachlan	Super Veteran	M	Bellahouston Roadrunners	00:11:23
20	Mike Donohue	Super Veteran	M			00:11:27
21	Craig Torgersen	Senior	M			00:11:32
22	Steven Robertson	Senior	M			00:11:36
23	Jordan Jeffrey	Senior	M			00:11:55
24	William Martin	Veteran	M			00:11:56
25	Ian Goudie	Super Veteran	M	Bellahouston Harriers	00:11:58
26	Rob Gallacher	Senior	M			00:12:05
27	Allison Simpson	Veteran	F			00:12:08
28	Lee Cameron	Senior	M			00:12:12
29	Niel Taylor	Senior	M	Stirling Triathlon	00:12:14
30	Russell Paton	Senior	M			00:12:18
31	Jeremy Deveney	Senior	M	Greenock Glenpark Harriers	00:12:21
32	Graeme Aitken	Veteran	M	Sweatshop Glasgow	00:12:22
33	Clare Barr	Veteran	F	Motherwell AC	00:12:26
34	Sharon McKinley	Senior	F	Bellahouston Harriers	00:12:27
35	Graeme Pert	Super Veteran	M			00:12:32
36	David Kelly	Senior	M			00:12:34
37	Erica Christie	Super Veteran	F	Bellahouston Harriers	00:12:50
38	Andy Brown	Senior	M			00:12:55
39	Marco Porelli	Senior	M			00:12:57
40	Stephen McKee	Super Veteran	M			00:13:01
41	Scott Fergus	Veteran	M			00:13:02
42	Keith MacKenzie	Veteran	M			00:13:08
43	Stephen Fitzgerald	Senior	M			00:13:13
44	Margaret Hutchinson	Veteran	F			00:13:27
45	Morag Casey	Veteran	F	Garscube Harriers	00:13:33
46	Tony Hamilton	Senior	M			00:13:34
47	Alasdair MacKay	Veteran	M	Garscube Harriers	00:13:46
48	John Softley	Super Vet	M	Bellahouston Harriers	00:14:04
49	Sharon Malloy	Veteran	F		00:14:20
50	Colin Aylot	Super Veteran	M		00:14:30
51	Gael McCallum	Veteran	F	Bellahouston Harriers	00:14:37
52	Naomi Watt	Senior			00:14:54
53	Michelle Morrison	Senior	F		00:14:56
54	Carol Keenan	Super Veteran	F	Bellahouston Harriers	00:15:29
55	Victoria Devoy	Senior	F		00:15:40
56	Kirstie Barton	Veteran	F		00:17:03
57	C Kelly	Veteran	M		00:17:03
58	Lynne Malcolm	Veteran	F		00:17:13
59	Lynsey McFarlane	Senior	F		00:17:34
60	Caroline Hunter	Senior	F		00:18:02
61	Paula Petersen	Senior	F		00:18:02

Victoria parkrun #20 Photos

Near the Start of the Race

Catching the Inverclyde AC runner at the end of the second lap

Sprint to the Finish

Photos by Donald Petrie

Reluctant Racer at Victoria parkrun #20

I made my way along to the 20^th staging of Victoria parkrun on Saturday morning, I had a slow warm up and up until about 9:25, I wasn't sure if I would participate or not. I was tempted just to have a run on my own but, after chatting with a number of running buddies, I decided to give it a go. Recalling my old maxim of 'use the parkrun, don't let the parkrun use you', I lined up with some 181 other runners, including at least five other Bellahouston Harriers.

Amused?

I set off not too far from the front and soon found myself behind an Inverclyde runner. I was just thinking that surpringly there was no sign of my old nemeses Graeme Aitken and Clare Barr, who have both become semi regulars at the weekly, free, west end of Glasgow, 5k event, when I heard a voice and turned to see Mrs Barr on my shoulder. After a quick “hello”, I returned to focusing on the Inverclyde AC runner (John Smillie) in front. With Garmin beeping to inform me that I had completed the first mile in 6:49, my tactics seemed to be working. I stuck behind him for the first two laps of the three lap course and then overtook him, as I approached the pond for the third time. I was now lapping the tail runners and decided to ignore Garmin, when it beeped at the two mile point. With a mile to go, I was thinking that I was either on track for a good time, or my fast start would take its toll and I would look like a right plonker as fresher runners caught me in the final third. I upped my work rate and overtook someone (Barry Foye) on the final strait to cross the line in 38^th place, with a watch time of 21:10. Although my official time would be recorded as 21:14, it was still my best performance in 32 months and represented a pace of 4:15m/km or 6:50m/mile and a wava of 73%.

Myself and Clare made our way to Scotstoun Leisure Centre for a catch up over coffee, where we were joined by the other Bellahouston Harriers, who had all done well, particularly Suzanne Boyle and Angela Campbell who had both earned PBs.

I had chalked up my 134^th parkrun and my 3^rd at Victoria park and I had turned the clock back to July 2011. If parkrun can get its issues with runbritain sorted, I should see my handicap returning to single figures. As usual, huge thanks to all the volunteers.

Happy Time at Windy Strathclyde Parkrun

I've continued to build up my training this year and I'm happy with my running, I've been really pleased with the few races that I've done but I've had to work very hard to get decent times and I wasn't sure how long I could maintain my progress, so I decided to give myself a wee test and confidence booster at a flat parkrun course, which narrowed the local choice down to Victoria or Strathclyde Parks. As I awoke early, I decided in the latter, which is a slightly further drive. However with the road works at Polmadie and the heavy rain on the M74, I wasn't sure that I had made the correct choice.

I parked the car at main building at Strathclyde Park, used the toilet facilities and warmed up along the side of the Loch to the race Start, taking the time to say “hello” to a number of running buddies.

I had thought about racing with my wind/shower proof jacket and gloves on but when I saw youngster Clare Hughes wearing only her Motherwell club vest, I decided to ditch them in favour of my Bellahouston Harrier t-shirt. The rain had abated in time for the 9:30 start but the wind most certainly hadn't.

Race Director, Pat Smith ensured that the 171 runners lined up in the puddles and mud of the grass, rather than the terra firma of the tarmac before making the usual announcements and setting us on our way. I started quite near the front and settled into my race as we joined the path and ran through the puddles alongside the artificial loch. I noticed that a couple of runners had shot off up front but was happy to find myself not too far off the rest of the leading packs.

I was keeping an eye of David Mooney ahead, when I noticed an alteration between him and a cyclist, who seemed to have pleasure in riding his bike into the ultra runner and then shouting expletives at him. I was glad to see David refocusing and continuing his race. I reached the 1k point at 4:10 and was happy with that, especially as I didn't feel that I was running flat out. I was even more content when I reached the 1mile mark in 6:50. I hoped to be able to run at 7min/miles and I seemed to be on target. However when we turned right along the bottom of the loch and along the alternative route, the wind increased and I found myself working hard to catch up with a pack of runners in front of me. That didn't really help as the wind seemed to becoming right across me but I was happy to tuck in for a while. When we reached the turning point Ally Robb, on marshaling duties shouted words of encouragement to the two runners immediately infront of me before noticing me behind them and shouting “keep breathing Ian!” I must have looked worse than I felt and I took my opportunity to overtake both runners on the bend and lift the pace for the second part of the race. The second mile took me 7:00, I was slowing but still on target. I caught a couple of other runners over the next 300yards as I ran back along the lochside, giving encouraging thumbs up signs to a few friends, further down the field.

The last mile or so was even harder, as we were now running directly into the wind. I was keeping David in sight but couldn't help but notice that another runner was running shoulder to shoulder with me and kept on looking at me and over his shoulder. The runner, Vincent Carrol of Kikintilloch Olympians, was obviously running within himself and, I presumed, trying to pace someone behind us at 7min/mile. I kept to my task and could only watch as he sprinted away from me over the last 200m. I skited over the last few metres of muddy grass but managed to steer myself down the Finish funel without falling, to place 25^th, in a time of 21:37:00. Garmin measured the alternate route as being slightly long at 5:03k. My official time of 21:38 and the official distance of 5k equates to 6:57min/miles, so job done, no matter how you look at it.

A check on Fetcheveryone.com revealed that not only had I achieved my race target pace but that I had actually ran my fastest 5k since July 2011, which was also a Strathclyde parrun. My wava was 72% and I had completed my 133^rd parkrun and my 14^th at Strathclyde.

Up front, Gregor Clarkson of Kingston on Hull, visiting his thirteenth different parkrun, had stormed to victory in a time of 16:26, with Clare Hughes forgetting her bad code and not crossing the line, Calderglen's Karen Allen took Gold in the Women's event with a time of 20:42 but the real heroes were the volunteers, who once again turned up in the terrible weather to ensure that we all got the chance to get our Saturday morning race.

Strathclyde parkrun