This week, the 2013 Tour of Clydeside took place. As usual, this consisted of four races, the Kilbarachan Klassic, a 5.5 mile trail race, the Clydebank Canal Bank Canter, 4.8 miles along the canal, the Garscube Gallop, a multi-terrain race in Dawsholm Park and the Bella Belter 10K road race in Pollock Park.
The first race, the Kilbarachan Klassic took place on Monday night in nice warm sunny conditions. Starting at the railway bridge in Kilbarachan, the route was an out and back along the cycle path (NCN Route 7) amid nice scenic conditions. Having run the Helensburgh half marathon the day before and having travelled to London and back on the day of the race, I turned up really to use the race as a training run. As such, I positioned myself at the back of the group. However, after 300M I decided there was more life in my legs than I thought and pulled to the outside and went for it. All the way out, I kept catching and overtaking various runners. On the turn, I was in about 10th place with two runners way ahead of everyone else and a couple of groups of 3 or 4 just in front. Half-way back I managed to overtake another 3 runners. Then coming in to the finish I over took one last runner before trying a sprint to catch one more, who heard me coming and managed to maintain the distance.
The race was won by Scott Mitchell from Westerlands in a time of 30.09. I came 6th in a time of 32.44. It was an excellent night of racing and with it being quite a small race, it was a nice forum to meet and chat with runners from other clubs.
The next night then saw the Canal Bank Canter, a 4.8 mile out and back along the canal starting near the Clydebank Playdrome. For this race, I was joined by John Weir and, Gordon and Evelyn turned up for support. Due to the very flat course, the race started quite fast with a group of three runners opening a gap of 25 metres quite quickly. I was in the second group of 5 or 6 runners with John just behind. With this being my 3rd race in 3 days, this for me was the toughest event of the week. I managed to maintain my place in the 2nd group and was really just hanging on as we reached about 2 miles. However, just after two miles we passed some bloke in a high vis-vest who looked flustered and was shouting something about, “Did we know where we were going?”. It turns out that it was the marshall who was nowhere near the 2.4 mile turning point. From then, the race descended into chaos(!). When we reached 2.4 miles, there was of course no cone or marshall and so everyone (or nearly everyone) kept running. As we were approaching 3 miles, there was a discussion in my group that that bloke was probably the marshall and that we should turn back. Having realised what had happened, most of us just jogged back to the finish line. The race was of course declared null and void. I have to say that I felt particularly sorry for the first group of three runners, none of who had a GPS watch on and who ran for nearly 5 miles before turning back. They only came into the finish after the rest of us were about to leave!
After a rest day on Wednesday, Thursday night was probably the toughest course, the 5K round Dawsholm park. After a rallying cry from Captain Hever, the Maryhill Harriers were out in force with coach McCartney in support. The race was 2 laps of a 2.5 K course round the park which consisted of a nice downhill in the middle of each lap but a really tough incline back up towards Ilay Road at the end of each lap. The race took off at a crazy pace with Cris Walsh from Bellahouston Harriers and Alastair Scott (unattached) setting the pace. Not too far behind them was another group of runners containing our very own Craig White. I found the first lap not too bad, but climbing the second hill at the end of the race was particularly tough and I have never been so happy to finish a race in my entire life!
Cris Walsh managed to keep the lead winning in a time of 16.53. The results for the Maryhill Harriers were:
4th Craig White (17.43 PB)
7th Andy Sutherland (18.02)
15th John Weir (19.34)
32nd Chris Hever (23.14)
40th Caroline Hassan (24.41)
Margaret also ran the race unofficially. Special mention must go to Craig who runs every week at the 5K park runs but decided to set a PB in one of the most toughest courses in the Glasgow area. He also took some notable scalps, some of whom were asking me about him in the changing rooms back at the Garscube sports centre!
Anyway, onto the last day and my aim was to try and secure a top 5 place in the overall standings. Fresh from his success the previous night, I was joined by Craig for the Bella Belter 10K at the Cartha Rugby club in Pollock Park. At the last minute, the course had to be changed due to roadworks on Haggs Road. So the race started in the middle of Pollock park and we did two clockwise, slightly shorter laps of the Brian Goodwin before finishing at the Rugby Club. I had a rough idea of the runners I was trying to beat to maintain a high standing in the overall listings and so just tucked in behind them during the first lap. Craig started running with me but then took off like the gazelle he is jumping from group to group up the positions. I felt pretty tired from about 3K and after about 7K it was just a battle to maintain some kind of speed to finish in a reasonable time. At about 8K, I could see that two of the guys I was competing with for the entire series were tiring as well and so I managed to pass them before eventually finishing in a time of 37.42 (13th). By then, Craig has already finished in 8th place in a time of 36.56, a new PB! So in 6 days, Craig had set PBs for his 5K, 10K and half marathon times!!! T
he race was won by Stevie Prentice from Bellahouston Harriers in a time of 34.32.
The standings for the entire series (top 5) were:
1st Cris Walsh (Bellahouston Harriers) 1.22.09
2nd Scott McCulloch (Sprinburn Harriers) 1.27.06
3rd Kristaps Kravcovs (Unattached) 1.27.34
4th Andy Sutherland (Maryhill Harriers) 1.28.28- 1st MV40 Prize
5th Gary Mitchell (Kirkintilloch Olympians) 1.28.50
The first lady was Pamela McCrossan (Clydesdale Harriers) in a time of 1.39.45. Apart from the mishap during the Clydebank race, this was a fantastic series of races, allowing runners to test themselves on different terrain over slightly different distances. With it being a relatively small field, it was a great event to do some racing and also to meet runners from other clubs. I would strongly encourage others from the club to have a go at the entire series next year. I certainly will be having another shot but might miss out the half marathon beforehand
Results from each race and the entire standings:
http://www.garscubeharriers.org.uk/index_en.php?pageid=18&subpageid=362