Woke up on Sunday to pretty perfect race conditions: cold and dry weather, after a couple of slices of marmalade toast I was of to get Chris. Got their in good time, met Andy, and went to register. Glad we left it to the day to register as the pre-registered queue was about 12.5km long itself. After a quick form filling Chris and I were out for a warm up with Andy. Had a wee 1Km jog (and the essential pre-race rest stop!) before getting into a good starting position with just three minutes to go to the start.
Straight away I sped of like a dafty, thinking, “Oh dear, I’m speeding of like a dafty. Again”. Stayed with the front pack a good kilometre or two before calming myself down, had a nice sprint down from the second hill mind you. Few potholes on the third kilometre, not sure how the blond woman I’d seen running earlier got past them.
Kilometre four saw a Shettleston harrier catching up with me to tell me this was the third race I’d sped of ahead of him before he’d then catch up with me and overtake. After this he spent a good few minutes trying to convince me why I should go run with the Shettleston harriers on a Sunday. All for a bit of chit chat but not sure why he picked the middle of a race to try selling his club to passers by, funny guy. Told him to ‘jog on’. I was full of wit.
Next several Kilometres were pretty nice. There were some hills, but none too hilly, all spread out enough so you would be recovered by the next one, enough to make it interesting (read ‘challenging’) but not so tough it wasn’t a fun run. None the less, I was happy to get a cup of water at the wee table about two thirds through. The lady told me I could run on and just throw the cup away when I was finished but I was happy enough to pause for a second and get a wee ‘hello hello how’s it going?’. Wouldn’t want to be littering anyhow!
I was quite surprised at kilometre nine that Andy (or Chris of course) hadn’t caught up with me. It wasn’t until this point in the run I started looking back and was able to see quite far, thankfully I couldn’t see any blue tops so just hoped I could hold my pace the rest of the way and come first in the club. Some pesky guy in a yellow jumper overtook me at about this point. Decided I’d use him as a pacer for the rest of the way.
I stayed about 200m behind him all the way to the second last hill (about 1.5 kilometres from the finish) where I tore down in a gravity fuelled sprint and got side by side with him. His facial expression was not welcoming. The last hill was pretty easy (easier than it’s steeper ascending approach the first time out anyway), leading us down to the home straight. At 500meters to go I opened up my legs and stopped jogging. I started running. Yellow jumper didn’t even accelerate, I blew him and a couple of others away in a satisfying sprint finish.
All in all, the race was pretty awesome. Nice quiet (only four cars) roads, free water, good goody bag, tea/coffee/biscuits/etc, and a healthy sized group of runners. Recommend the event for next year.
Sam
Time: 52:47
Pos: 26/222
Per: 88
Cat Pos: 12/51
Cat Per: 76
Andy
Time: 53:40
Pos: 35/222
Per: 84
Cat Pos: 15/51
Cat Per: 70
Chris
Time: 65:45
Pos: 137/222
Per: 38
