It Was a Misty Morning ..........



Leading Ladies at Bellahouston Park

 My original intention was to race Strathclyde parkrun on Saturday morning but, with the National Cross Country Championship Races being held later in the same day, I decided to do my local Glasgow parkrun instead. As well as being quicker to get to, Glasgow would also allow me to chart any progress from last week’s attempt at the same venue.


Frolics in the Fog

I arrived at a cold and foggy Pollok Park in time for a quick catch up with some running buddies and a brief warm up. As usual, I retied my shoe laces after my warm up and made my way into the assembled pack of runners. A number of regulars were noticeable by their absence, with the XC races and the next day’s run With the Wind 10k race providing alternatives. However the addition of 31 first timers helped to ensure a considerable turnout of 303 runners and walkers for the 105th staging of the event. For some reason, their also seemed to be a significant number of buggies on display today, this was good news for Chris Upson who will, hopefully, be in the market for one in the near future.

Leader of the Pack

I started a little further back than usual and, when the race got underway, I watched a bit of a melee as runners jostled for places as their exuberance got the better of them. “They’re wasting a lot of energy” I thought to myself as I negotiated my way down the hill. The road veered left and, as we made our way towards the ‘woodpecker’, I found myself, as usual, at the head of a pack with a bit of a distance to those in front, whose numbers included the very consistent pairing of Martin Myant and Jim McMillan. I decided to increase my pace and, as we entered the woods and climbed the first hill of the course, I was already picking off runners, catching Martin and Jim just after the 1k point. In fact, as my Garmin beeped to inform me that the lap had taken 4:26, I noticed Martin look down at his watch.

John Hagemeister must also have had a slow start as he caught up with me shortly after this and his efficient running style soon left me behind. I was quite happy with my pace and I managed to complete the first lap of the course with no problems. I was working quite hard as I weaved my way along the zigzag part of the course and back onto the park road. However with two miles under my belt, I noticed the wheels of a buggy to my right hand side, closely followed by the sound of someone chatting to me. “WTF?” I thought. When the buggy pusher drew level with me, I was relieved to see that it was Stephen Prentice, who is a class runner. I managed no more than a grunt in response to the words emitting from his happy, smiling, relaxed looking face as he ran past.

220m to go........

I now realised that I had a ‘frog in my throat’ which was impeding my concentration and breathing. Things got worse when I noticed that my right lace had come undone. With leaves, puddles and even horse droppings to manoeuvre through, I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to complete the race without losing at least one running shoe. Perhaps this would be my chance to try out barefoot running. However I kept to my task and refocused my attention on a guy with a blue Edinburgh Marathon t-shirt ahead of me. With about 900m to go, I was disappointed to find myself dropping a place, as Alan Dempster overtook me. His advantage was short lived though as I attacked the last hill and opened up a gap on my way around to the last 200m down hill finish. I was still a bit concerned about my footwear but someone was on my shoulder and his presence made sure that their was no slacking on my part.

Sixty Nine
I crossed the Line in 60th place, with a time of 21:41. Only one place higher than last week BUT an improved time of no less than 69 seconds! Of course there’s still a lot of improvement required to get near my PB.

Worth a Mention
Further up the field Cambuslang’s Martin McLaughlin crossed the line first in 17.00, followed by Max Lancaster of Giffnock North in second place (with a new PB of 17.15) and Callum Matthews from Kilbarchan in third place (17.24).

Stewarton’s Andy McGhee placed fourth with a time of 17:27; there was a quartet of PBs for Graeme Gemmell; Andrew Carson; Paul McNally and John Gilhooly who placed 15-18 respectively.

John Hagemeister finished 38th with a time of 20:22, three places ahead of Central’s youngster, Emily Greenan, who won the women’s race with a new PB of 20.25. Second woman was Hilary Robinson in 20.36, followed by Romy Beard in third place in 22.20.

Alan Dempster finished two places behind me, in 62 place with a time of 21:45, with Jim McMillan 72nd in 22:15 and Martin Myant 79th in 22:24.

Ayrshire lass, Marianne Wilson was also among the 74 runners achieving a PB, placing 80th (fourth female) in 22:30. Kilmarnock Harrier's youngster Terry Mulholland took eight seconds off of his previous time to place 85th in 22:53. His mother, Sylvia, also did well, taken an impressive 40 seconds off of her PB to place 117th in 24:01, just ahead of Suzanne Boyle, who took 10 seconds off of her PB. Whilst Katy Smith’s time of 24:05 was just one second off of her PB, her son Robbie took the family plaudits by taken 39 seconds off of his PB, to place 250th in 30:09.



Post (and Pre) Race Repartee

After a quick coffee and cake with Chris Upson, Niall McAlinden (who were sugar loading before their XC race) and Claire Larravide (who had run the recent Dublin Marathon), I made my way along to Bellahouston Park to cheer on the runners and take a few photos of the first class action in the glorious winter sunshine, before having some lunch with four of Motherwell AC's finest and, eventually, making my way home in time to hear the Famous Kilmarnock FC being hammered by their highland opposition.



Luncheon Ladies



Thanks

Thanks to the 21 super volunteers that made Glasgow parkrun happen, to Chris Upson for the use of his pics and to all the runners and organisers at Bellahouston Park.


Full Results

Chris Upson’s Photos

My Photos of the XC Senior Races

XC Report from SA

XC Results

Scottish National Cross Country Race

It was strange not participating in a parkrun on Saturday, February 20 but as I had volunteered to do the web report, I couldn’t resist the urge to go along and watch the event. As I drove along I noticed a few early morning runners which put me in the mood for a run. It was good to see the winners of the parkrun finishing for a change and to see the efforts of those that normally finish around the same time as I do. I maid my way home, passing other runners and decided to go back to bed. Unfortunately I then lost the enthusiasm to race and thought about having a day off, before telling myself that I would still need to put in a training run anyway.

I made my way to Callander Park, Falkirk where I supported the Senior Women’s race before, eventually, meeting up with the other Killie Harriers. Although there were nine names down to run, only six of us had turned up on the day which meant that my performance would be one of the top six that count for the team points.

It was a cold but beautiful winter’s day, the sun was shining but the ground was a bit hard and I wasn’t sure if my spikes were the correct choice of footwear for the day. After a short warm up, I decided to wear my long sleeved vest under my Killie vest and headed to the start line in front of Callander House, where I joined around 450 other runners.

With little ado we were off and a mass of runners headed up the first hill. There were loads of excellent runners who raced away whilst I worked hard to settle into a decent pace. As we turned right and headed towards the frozen pond, I recognised a few runners that I knew were slightly better than me and was happy that we seemed to be running along together, however it wasn’t long until they left me behind. I tried to hang on to John Hagemeister for a wee while but he also left me. The route left the pond and followed the perimeter of the golf course on our left before a very steep fall down to a dry burn and back up the other side and along to our right back towards Callander House. My Garmin read 12 minutes so I knew that the first lap still had a lot more to endure as we veered off to the left and back uphill.

A sharp right turn and we were running along Antonine Wall, before a left turn took us down the mud bath which headed towards the finish line. Someone shouted “only another five miles to go” as I turned left and headed back uphill. It was a bit of a struggle but I managed to keep running and continued on my second lap. I could hear someone gasping for breath behind me and I wondered how he would keep going for another two laps. He was right behind me and tried to overtake me a couple of times but I held him off, using his work rate as motivation. Someone shouted “you’re doing well, work together” but as we left the frozen pond for the second time he overtook me and ran into the distance. I threw myself down to the dry burn and my momentum almost took me back up the other side. As I made my way back along towards the House,

I could hear people shouting “C’mon Cammy” repeatedly and although I didn’t know who was behind me, he did appear to be one of the most popular runners in the field as his support continued along the route before overtaking me and I recognised him as Inverclyde’s Cammy Spence.

As I ran along Antonine Wall towards the end of my second lap I could now hear calls of “C’mon Ali” and I thought “oh no not someone else.” I pushed it in and tried to pull away but the calls continued. I then noticed Shettleston’s Tsegezab Woldemichael passing by me on my left hand side, immediately followed by Ali Hay on my right hand side. It wasn’t long until they were joined by Derek Hawkins, Chris Powner and Dan Mulhare. As they sprinted towards the finish line, I veered to my left to ascend the hill for my third and last time. I knew that I would finish the race now and I was hoping to make up some time and catch a few runners. I could now hear people shouting my name and as I made my way around Claire McCracken, the Bella girls, Toni McIntosh, Jimmy and Sandra Irvine, Jim Buick, Chris Upson and others all provided vocal support.

I caught up with a brown shirted Hunter Bog Trotter who cried out “on you go” as I passed him.
A little further on and I caught a short guy who said “well done” as I past bye.

I’m not sure if I would have been as supportive to others but I was impressed by their courtesy.

I tried to run faster but my legs were heavy and I just couldn’t run as fast as I would have liked. As I turned right, I glanced over my shoulder and observed that there wasn’t anyone close to me. I focussed on catching up with those in front and as I narrowed the gap I could hear the calls of “C’mon Cammy”, so I targeted the Inverclyde runner as I made my way around the remainder of the course. He was racing against a Portobello runner and I was catching them albeit slowly. Any hope of catching the pair was scuppered with the mud bath which passed as the final straight. I did try really hard but it was heavy going underfoot and the gap was just too great. They crossed the finishing line together, some eight seconds ahead of me. My time was 59:04, which was far from great but I had guestimated that it would take me about an hour.

The Killie Captain, Connell Drumond, was waiting to congratulate me as I made my way to the end of the line of officials. I then noticed Bella’s Dougie McGregor crossing the line and we congratulated him before heading back to the other Killie Harriers for a quick chat before making our way home.

The published results revealed that I had placed 400th out of 447 finishers, not everyone had finished. As the sixth Killie Harrier my place actually counted and the team placed 20th, five better than the year previous. Although this was of course mostly due to the faster times of the other team members, my endeavours did help and I got a mention in the Kilmarnock Standard. There was no chance of me counting as a Bellahouston Road Runner

There was no medal, no goody bag, no fruit and no water but where else do you get the opportunity to join with the elite and compete in the most prestigious event of any sport. Would I do it again, you bet I would!


Pics by Kenny Phillips and Chris Upson

Video