This morning the clouds cleared, the rain ceased, the wind continued to blow and the sun shone, but something just didn’t feel right. There was an imbalance in the force!
I shouldn’t have been surprised as this week I had heard a few conversations that had began to make me feel uneasy – it felt like there was a shifting in the tide.
For example, on Tuesday at running club I overheard…
Obi-Wan Riddell: Let’s just hope Anakin is ready for this responsibility.
Yoda McCartney: Ready he is.
And then this morning after the warm up I heard another conversation…
Yoda McCartney: The fear of loss is a path to the dark side.
Andy Skywalker: What must I do, Master Yoda?
Yoda McCartney: Train yourself to let go… of everything you fear to lose.
Anyway, back to the race. 8 members of Maryhill Harriers (plus veteran pacemaker Joe McCartney) turned out for this brilliant 10k race organised to celebrate the 10th birthday of both Bellahouston Road Runners and Achilles Heel. And it wasn’t your standard 10k, in fact in turned out to be a race with quite a few firsts…
After registering in the Palace of Arts in Bellahouston Park, we made our way uphill to the start line only to find out that the start was delayed at first by 15 minutes, and then by a further 15 minutes. By then the masses decided to head back inside. We returned to the start line at 11.30am with a total of 371 runners and thankfully this time we were ready to start.
The race began with a great foot slapping downhill first kilometre, followed by 2 laps of a winding (kinda out and back course) with the first lap longer than the second as it included a loop of the track and an extra little loop at the furthest away point.
Caroline and I utilised the pacemaking duties of Joe for the first 50 yards, before tagging on to some other runners with the aim of running 4:10-4:15 kms. As we watched the lead runners pass us at about 3k on their way back, Andy was ahead of Mick but this was only to be expected. The first 5k felt quite easy (20:40) although running directly into the wind between 5k and 6k was a struggle. We kept pace over the next few km, before finishing with a strong last km, albeit running into that same headwind for most of it. I crossed the line (41:54) just ahead of Caroline (42:11 and a new PB by about 40 seconds) – both ahead of most the runners we started with. We went through the runner filter at the end to have our medals presented to us by leggy models!? in high heels wearing hot pants (a first), and then collect our water, banana and goody bag (containing mars bar, normal selection of leaflets, and a mini mizuno bum bag reputedly worth £6 – another first). Those who entered both this race and the Bella 5k earlier in the year got a really nice technical race t-shirt – I was so wishing I had also done the 5k. We then headed back to meet Joe and cheer in the rest of the runners, and it was then that we heard the news…
Andy (38:57) had stayed ahead of Mick (39:12) and was first Maryhill Harrier home, also taking a minute off his PB. Is this a changing of the guard, or just a one off? One thing is for sure – the force is strong with that one!
My shock was only broken by a numberless George sprinting past on his way to finishing in 48:35 – he was one of many who arrived too late to get an official entry but was encouraged to run anyway. Next was Caroline H (48:47), getting her revenge on Chris for last week who followed not far behind (49:22), and then Holly in her first race for Maryhill finishing in a brilliant personal best time of 49:39.
Thanks to Joe (also chief Maryhill supporter), and my Mum and Dad, and our friend Jules for support on the way round.
Well done to all the other runners, especially some of our friends that were running to raise money for our Romania charity trip, that I had been coaching on Friday nights.
And thanks to the organisers for an impressively run 10k marred only slightly by the half hour delay at the start. I hope it becomes a regular fixture on the race calendar.
1 393Robert Gilroy Ronhill CambuslangHarriers MS 0:31:37 (first male)
23 209Lyndsay Morrison Central AC FS 0:37:36 (first female)
41 24 Andrew Sutherland Maryhill Harriers MS 0:38:57 PB
45 398 Michael McCartney Maryhill Harriers MV50+ 0:39:12
74 284 Stephen Jones Run4Romania MS 0:41:54
81 45 Caroline Jones Maryhill Harriers FS 0:42:11 PB (9th Female, 7th FS)
Not listed – George Young 48:35
210 43 Caroline Hassan Maryhill Harriers FV45+ 0:48:47 (6th FV45+)
224 54 Christopher Hever Maryhill Harriers MV40+ 0:49:22
226 335 Holly Dear Maryhill Harriers FS 0:49:39 PB
Hope the hill runners had a great day!
