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