The tour consists of 4 races in one week – they generously give you the Wednesday to rest!
Monday – Kilbarchan Klassic – 5½ miles trail race on the cycle track starting and finishing in Kilbarchan.
Tuesday – Canal Bank Canter at Clydebank – 4.8 miles along the Forth and Clyde Canal.
Thursday – Garscube Gallop – 5k multi terrain race in Dawsholm Park, Glasgow.
Friday – Bellahouston Belter – 10k Road Race at Cartha Queens Park Rugby Club, Dumbreck Road, Glasgow.
Apparently for a race to be part of this series, it is essential for the name to have some forced comedy alliteration.
Monday went well. I finished in 24th place out of 50, and a time of 36:25. I set my sights on 2 runners whom I normally finish close to in other races, and stayed ahead of them most of the race. With about a mile to go, however I was overtaken by these 2 runners. My competative spirit got the better of me though, and I finished with a olympic style glory sprint to pass both in the final straight, only to almost collapse as they both casually chatted and went over to get biscuits and water.
On Tuesday I determined not to start too fast, and failed. I wasn’t too bad, but had planned to stay behing my targets and didn’t. I finished 23rd out of 41 in a time of 31:45. Both my target runners passed my in the second half of the race, and although I made up some ground at the end, I wasn’t able to catch them but was happy to go under 32 minutes.
Thursday night was great with a good Maryhill turn out – Gordon, Nacho, Caroline J and Chris H were all running. Actually it felt a lot like a training night but without the breaks. I finished well ahead of my peers in 24th and a time of 21.58 (I say peers, one is F45 and the other M60) – either I handled the hills a little better, or they sensibly rested for the following days race. Gordon was just in front of me in a time of 21:47 with a great run (I’ve got to say that cos he beat me), with Nacho, Caroline J and Chris H in 22:52, 23:10 and 26:46 respectively.
On Friday night it was back to just me (and I was not so secretly dreaming of a sub 40 min 10k). I finished in 36th place in a time of 42:20 and the dawning realisation that I am going to have to do a lot more speed work to get under 40 minutes (or rest the week before the race, or find a downhill race). It was a 5k loop in Pollock Park that we ran round twice. As always my first 5k was too fast – but I this time it was on purpose as I was aiming for 40 minutes. Half way round and already 30s behind pace I gave up on the watch and just ran the rest as fast as I could.
I completed the series in 2h12min28s total and was 17th overall with one of my rivals 15s ahead of me and the other 20s behind me. At the presentation, I got a spot prize of a £10 voucher for Achilles Heel – bonus!
All in all, the series was great. It was good to get the legs going again after not running as much this summer, but the best bit about it was the social side. Whereas at a one off race you don’t always chat to the other runners, when you are running with them 4 nights in one week you do!
