After 5 of our fellow Harriers opted for the easy option of a leisurely 10k jog, ten heroes took on the full 13.1 miles accompanied by one former Maryhill champion and Caroline’s mum.
This year some of the Maryhill contingent were treated to the pre-race facilities available within the city chambers, thanks to our knowing the right people (David and George). This comprised of entering the grandeur of this spectacular building situated right on George Sq, traveling via a labyrinth like underground tunnel made for hobbit sized folks (needless to say Mick, Willie and John had plenty of headroom), to come out at our own private room. The facilities included a nice room to leave our bags in, a changing area with showers, a kitchen for a pre-race cuppa, and toilets that were infinitely better than the portaloos outside.
We all got into our starting areas, with me electing to join John Weir only meters from the elite athletes. This was to prove a very mixed decision – on one hand, it meant we got off to a flyer and didn’t have to put up with any of the draining crowd dodging I had experienced in previous years and that Mick and Willie endured this year; on the other hand, it meant I got off to a flyer. I had decided the night before that I didn’t care about even pacing – I was just going to go out and run as fast as I could (in an attempt to beat my pb of 1:34:26), and hope to hang on till the end, even if I blew up fairly spectacularly. And so it was. There’s going out fast, and then there’s going out WAY too fast – sadly I opted for the latter. I was pretty worried when I got to 6 miles and I was still ahead of John, Mick and Willie, but was still feeling relatively good. I got to 7 miles in 49 minutes, so was on pace for something like 1:31, but it wasn’t long until I began to feel like I was moving backwards through a giant crowd of people. John W had passed me at about 10k, but due to having started further back Mick and Willie didn’t appear till almost the 10 mile mark. The last 4 or 5 miles were a struggle, and the added factor of the heat (I know – heat in a Glasgow race, what was that about?) didn’t help much. I wasn’t even able to up my pace in the final mile, apart from the last dash for the line. However, I was rewarded with a time of 1:35:41, my fastest in the GSR and my second fastest half, so was happy with that. To be honest, the splits for my pb at Alloa probably weren’t much better. In the post race chat, Willie suggested that if I was going for break my pb I should have maybe tried to run at 1:33-1:34 pace, rather than 1:31 – there might be something in that!
John W had a great run, leading the Harriers home, and most importantly beating Andy (who looked a lot like Mick on the day). Willie (aka Ross) was just behind but by merit of his later start took the honours with fastest time. Mick, I mean Andy, did a fantastic job pacing Willie and finished not long after. Then came I. David managed to get away from George in the middle of the race, then just hold him off at the end as George was chasing him down – George improving on his previous year’s time by a few minutes. Maggie just pipped John Edgar (who ran his first half in a superb time of 1:55:14 – what next John?) who in turn just pipped Raymond. And Susan brought that Harriers home in a time 2:16:47.
Former Harrier, Chris Stockdale had the beating of us all on the day with an excellent time of 1:26:25, and Caroline’s mum, Elizabeth, beat her previous best by 9 minutes, smashing her own 10k pb in the process.
Thanks to Caroline, Andy, Joe, Chris, Gus and Sheina for support, and a special thanks to Elaine for the rolls and sausage she prepared for us after the race.
Well done to everyone – juniors, 10k and half-marathoners – it was a great day of racing for Maryhill!
I really wanted to (selfishly) list the Harriers below in order of their 5k split time, but seen as it was a half marathon after all…
Place Time 5k 10k 15k
353 01:30:46 14449 Willie McGill 00:21:33 00:43:11 01:04:55
403 01:31:37 14692 John Weir 00:21:14 00:43:40 01:05:34
426 01:32:00 12802 Mick McCartney 00:21:33 00:43:11 01:04:57
657 01:35:41 12586 Stephen Jones 00:21:08 00:43:42 01:06:36
2091 01:48:11 14745 David McLenaghan 00:25:09 00:49:51 01:15:05
2150 01:48:33 18617 George Young 00:25:09 00:50:53 01:16:12
3154 01:54:34 13269 Maggie Darroch 00:25:48 00:52:33 01:20:00
3289 01:55:14 16243 John Edgar 00:25:46 00:52:26 01:20:34
3308 01:55:24 20509 Raymond Stevenson 00:27:09 00:54:09 01:21:22
6443 02:16:47 17060 Susan McAndrew 00:29:56 01:02:46 01:35:53
194 01:26:25 13719 Chris Stockdale 00:20:29 00:40:56 01:01:32
5552 02:09:36 21057 Elizabeth Chalmers 00:28:10 00:58:13 01:29:46
