In a race famed for its bogs and puddles, the 2016 Southside Six took place in perfect running conditions with a beautifully bright sunny (albeit freezing!) day greeting the 300+ strong crowd. For anyone not familiar with this event, the SS6 is a 26km race through the 6 parks of the Southside, taking in stairs, hills, trails and a decent amount of traffic dodging along the way. This was my 3rd year taking part and it is always a race I look forward to tremendously. It’s a tough slog but always generates a great atmosphere and on a fine autumnal day like this is really shows Glasgow at its best.
My recent marathon exploits have sapped some speed from me in recent weeks, as demonstrated by a disappointing Parkrun the previous day. I was however hopeful that the longer distance would suit me better at this stage and was confident of beating my previous years’ time of 2hr 6 minutes.
The downhill start from Queens Park always seems to catch me out, and by the time we hit the incline up towards King Park I was already feeling the legs burn. Thankfully I’ve learned from previous years to take advantage of the downhill stretches to recover, and I felt strong as I passed through the stairs section in Linn Park. A nice downhill through Clarkston followed before entering Rouken Glen Park. As mentioned before, with the weather being dry recently, the usual bogs here and in Pollok Park were missing which made for a far easier time. At this point I was on track for a sub 2 hour time, however the spectre of the Bellahouston Park stairs loomed heavily in the horizon.
As with previous years, performance in this race hangs on how well you recover from these stairs for the last section back towards Queens Park. Unlike previous years, I managed to avoid losing too much time here and recovered quickly to maintain my pace over the last 5k. By the time I reached the top of the Queens Park stairs I felt like I was running in slow motion, however I managed to haul myself over the line in 1:55:07, 11 minutes quicker than last year.
As always, a brilliant day out. Big thank you to the marshals who had the tough job of stewarding the runners across some busy roads. Also, top marks to the organisers for a great goody bag. Not an energy gel or cereal bar in sight, instead Haribo and Monster Munch!
The race was won by Crispin Walsh from Bellahouston Harriers in 1:32:28, and I was 42nd out of 304 finishers.
