First Race of 2010

Well it was a wee bit later than I hoped for but I managed to get my first race of the decade under my belt. The volunteers at the Glasgow parkrun, faced with a dangerous first and second choice route managed to design a new off-road course and secured agreement from the management of Pollok Park to allow an event to be held on the snow covered fields of the south Glasgow park.

Some fifty-five hardy souls turned up on Saturday, January 9 to participate in the first Glasgow parkrun of the decade. I had decided to wear my spikes, well let’s face it they don’t get used that often and they do look good! After exchanging New Year greetings with fellow runners we assembled at a new start point to be advised of the day’s course route, which would see runners making their way around three laps around snow covered football and hockey pitches.

Without further adieu we were off with Gerry Scullion leading the way. I started near the front but by the time the route made its first turn I had been overtaken by what seemed like everybody. We made our way along the perimeter of one of the pitches, when we reached the far side of the pitch the snow wasn’t as deep, as the path had been protected by some trees. I was able to overtake a few runners here and found myself a couple of places behind Christopher McKiddie. I know that Chris is a lot faster and younger than me and decided that I would try to finish as close to him as possible. A few times I thought I might be able to catch him but he managed to increase the pace and the gap increased rather decreased. However he was still in my sights. I was also aware that Erica Christie must still behind me somewhere and I was hopeful that if I focused on Chris and even those ahead of him, I might be able to hold off the expected challenge of Erica.

As we started our third and final lap, I was immediately behind Chris. Maybe, just maybe I would be able to catch him. However to do this I would need to get closer to him and as we ran along the side of the pitch he increased his lead. Under the trees I could hear steps as someone tried to overtake me. I dug deep to hold them off and at the next corner I had made up on Chris and another runner and took my opportunity. A sharp right, followed by a sharp left, one step on the icy road and another left and right saw us heading towards the start/finish. I was trying to work out where the finish line was and whether the runner in front of me was on his second or final lap when I was overtaken by a bearded runner. I sprinted after him, overtaken the other runner as vended right and approached the finish line.

I placed 20th with a time of 25:04, Christopher was two places behind with 25:06 and Erica 29th with 26:42. I had beaten Chris for the first time. I’ve ran in the same races as Erica for well over ten years and this is the first time I had beaten her, although she still placed first woman. Despite my performance I was still disappointed with my time. However the results show that most people were around five minutes slower than their usual Glasgow parkrun times. Indeed no-one timed under 20:00 minutes on the day. My Garmin revealed that the course was actually 3.21 miles long. I checked Chris and Erica’s PBs to discover that Chris has done the traditional hard route in 19:19 and Erica in 20:06, whereas my PB stands at 21:18. So all and all, although the record books won’t show it, it was a good performance for me in my first race of the ‘teenies’.
Selected Results:

19 Fraser Clark 25:00
20 Ian Goudie 25:04
21 Chris Chennell 25:05
22 Chris McKiddie 25:06
29 Erica Christie 26:42
41 Graeme Aitken 30:45

Full results here: http://www.parkrun.org.uk/glasgow/Results.aspx
Photos: http://www.parkrun.org.uk/glasgow/Photos.aspx

myRace - my pic

There’s a smashing photo of me in the new electronic version of myRace in the report on the first anniversary of the Glasgow parkrun. It’s taken by regular Glasgow parkrun photographer Gill Williamson and it shows me leading a couple of other runners at about the half way point of the 5k Pollok Park course.

You can sign up to myRace here.

New Year, New Challenges

I’ve been wondering what challenges to set myself this year. My running showed steady progress last year but I still feel that there is more to come as my fitness level improves. However the adverse weather isn’t good for running and a number of the races over the Festive period that I had planned to do were either cancelled or postponed. I’ve only managed a few runs outdoors and have resorted to the gym and treadmill instead. My training indicates that I’m doing well but the lack of races hasn’t afforded me the opportunity to test this for real. I’ve only in the last few days managed to get a wee bit cycling in and I haven’t to-date managed any swimming!

Marathon and PBs
I’ve been offered the chance of a free place in the Lochaber Marathon on April 18th and although I don’t know if I have it yet or not I have started my marathon training programme. I’ve been very ambitious though and decided to train for a 3:15 marathon time, which in theory should enable me to achieve my ambitions of a 20 min 5k and a 40 min 10k.

Goals
So there we have the goals, a new PB at marathon, half, 10k and 5k distances. A sub 20min 5k and sub 40min 10k and just to round it off I’ll aim to run 2010 miles this year as well. You’ve got to aim high!

New Year Review - a wee update!

I managed to squeeze in another couple of races the Glasgow parkrun on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Two races in two days took my total to 64 for the year!



The icy conditions and my poor health kept road running in the final days of the decade to a minimum. However I managed to beat my 10k PB on the treadmill and went sub 40 for the first time since my records began clocking a 38:56 and it wasn't on a flat programme. I know it's not the same as road/real running but it is a major psychological boost to me as I go into another running year.



My total running milage for the year was 1539, with a further 521 on the bike.


SAHB
On a non running note, I had a bit of a nostalgic trip by attending the Chris Glen gig at The Ferry in Glasgow on Boxing Day. A great night and reminiscent of those Christmas Specials that the bands used to put on.





Auld Lang Syne
I watched It's a Wonderful Life and a documentary about Auld Lang Syne, both brought a tear to my eye. I guess I'm just proud to be an 'honest man'.

Robert Burns penned this in 1788:

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!

Chorus.-For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

And surely ye'll be your pint stowp!
And surely I'll be mine!
And we'll tak a cup o'kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.

We twa hae run about the braes,
And pou'd the gowans fine;
But we've wander'd mony a weary fit,
Sin' auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.

We twa hae paidl'd in the burn,
Frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar'd
Sin' auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.

And there's a hand, my trusty fere!
And gie's a hand o' thine!
And we'll tak a right gude-willie waught,
For auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.

The weather outside is frosty..........

I enjoyed my walk in the winterland through Queens Park this morning, the snow was crisp and the air was cold, shame I'm not yet up to running in it but it did mean that I could take some photos.

Year End

Like a lot of my running friends I've been ill for a wee while. I caught the flu on Sunday 22nd November and haven't been right since. I poured myself on to a plane and headed to Egypt where I could lie around by the pool or beach and soak in the vitamin D and serotonin. I had a couple of Thai massages when I was there which made me feel like a bit of dough being kneaded but they did help improve my flexibility and help my yoga and ofcourse I tried some of the local customs.



I did the Glasgow parkrun on my return on Saturday 5th December and all things considered I was happy with my time of 22:10. However I missed out on the post race chat and bacon rolls, deciding to get home for a hot shower and back to bed instead. I’m afraid that was a bit of a false dawn as I’ve been struggling since and whilst the fever may help keep the pounds off, wakening up to soaking sheets and pillows every morning is not good. I’ve been on antibiotics, thanks to fellow Ayrshire man Alexander Fleming, but I’m not sure if they have worked. I did wake up in a dry bed this morning though so I tried a wee 20 minute run on the treadmill 2.53 miles and felt ok. Hopefully I’ll get back into running regularly again soon.



In 2009 I managed to run in 62 races and achieved new PBs in the 5k, 5mile, 5.5mile, 10k, 10,000m, 7.5mile and 12.5k distances. No exceptional results but my WAVA is now consistently above 70%, with my highest being 73.78% achieved at the inaugural Edinburgh parkrun. On a down note although I followed Hal Higdon’s 18 week marathon training programme in the end the monkey on my back from collapsing at the Edinburgh Marathon last year with chronic fatigue was just too heavy for me to carry.

In 2010, if I can, I would like to loose that monkey and clock a useful marathon PB. I would also love to get a sub 40min 10k and a sub 20min 5k. Well it’s a target anyway. It would also be good to finish at least one race as first in my category but there are so many good runners out there. I hope to improve my swimming enough to try a triathlon and it would be good to do at least one overseas race.

1500 Miles - Job Done !

Last year I ran 1431 miles so it made sense to me to set myself a target of 1500 miles for 2009. I'm pleased to say that I achieved the target on Sunday 22nd November. I had planned to complete my target at the Brampton to Carlisle 10 mile race but the bad weather and associated flooding forced me to change my plans, my fall back of doing it at the Glasgow parkrun also went awry with the weekly event being cancelled for the first time ever. I therefore got up early on Sunday morning and ran the couple of miles which I needed to reach the big 1500. No more, no less. The Fetch 1500 Mile Club reported “Two new inductees into the hall of fame, so put your hands together for Race Jase, and ian 9657, who got to 1500 and decided that was clearly plenty. It remains to be seen if he ever runs again.”

As it happened I helped out at the Renfrewshire XC Championships from 9am to about 3pm and caught the flu so my running has all but ceased at the moment……. But heh I guess it’s just a way of my body telling me that I needed to rest.