This years Glasgow Mens 10k took on a brand new route, starting at the Riverside museum and winding round the streets of the City Centre, taking you up Buchanan Street, through George Square and finally into Glasgow Green for the finish. This was slightly bizarre given the old route, starting and finishing in Bellahouston Park, had generally proved very popular amongst both runners and spectators, and was always a good, fast course for PB hunting.
Myself and Craig represented the Harriers, however after the Brian Goodwin 10k two days previous I was content on just getting round the course and enjoying it rather than worrying about time. Had it not been for the fact the Mens 10k was my first ever race 4 years ago and has become something of a tradition (plus the excellent goody bag at the end) I probably wouldn’t have bothered.
As it was, I was happy enough to plod round in bang on 44.00, a minute off usual pace which was expected. I did try and hang on with Craig for as long as I could, however as he did at Dumbarton a few weeks ago he surged away at around 3 miles never to be seen again!
Speaking with some people after the event, the general feeling towards the new route seemed to be quite negative. There is an awful lot of twists and turns through the city centre before you reach Glasgow Green that seem to have been put there simply to make up the distance, and a lot more uphill stretches than the old route (running up Buchanan St in amongst shoppers was quite an experience). Hopefully the organisers take note of feedback and revert back to the old route for next year!
The event was won by Robert Gilroy in 31.50
113th Craig Gilmour – 41.54
219th Scott Coulter – 44.00
Craig’s take on it :
Despite the threat of being pulled because of a lack of funding, the mens 10k returned for 2015. The threat seemed to be from a lack of government funding (did someone mention legacy!!) which is a shame as the race regularly has a high number of individuals who are taking part in a formal 10k race for the first time – in fact this race in 2010 was my first ever and was where I realised I was actually not too bad at this running thing.
With new backers came a new route, keen to utilise sponsorship the new route started at the Riverside museum and went on a rather convoluted route to Glasgow Green. I have to say that I really liked the previous Bellahouston/Pollok park route as it was compact andit gave supporters a real chance to motivate the runners. This new route was very different – the obvious selling point was running the Kingston Bridge, but even that novelty has worn thin if you take part in the either of the Great Scottish Runs. At 5k I was at 20.10 but in the second half I lost a lot of interest in pushing myself, especially as this second half involved a lot of right hand turns in the city centre. One thing about this route is that it is definitely not a pb run, best highlighted by the fact that the winning time was almost at 32 minutes.
Although it was a very well organised race, hopefully next year they go back to the older route.
