Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
A Good Day In Glasgow
by Russell Turner - 17:44 on 30 September 2019
Home again, after another athletic expedition, to rain and indifferent cats. We were lucky with the weather in Glasgow.
Not so lucky was Matchgirl The Spectator, who went out on a solo run before the Great Scottish Run action began and ended up flat on her face after losing a tussle with a tree root. And no-one came to her assistance. The bruises on hands, chin and elsewhere, and associated stiffness, are coming on nicely today. Poor girl.
I had a much better time (although we’ll gloss over the parking fine I got while waiting for the Airbnb owner to produce the fob which gave access to a private parking space; it never materialised). The start was just a 10-minute walk away, baggage buses were easily accessible and hanging around was kept to a minimum.
Elites and white wave set off at 11.30, green wave at 11.40, then me and the pink wave at 11.50, along St Vincent Street and up a cruel hill, fortunately levelling out then descending after less than half a mile. My plan was to tag along with the 2:20 pacer until halfway then see how it went. This appeared to fall apart quite quickly, when I was held back by less motivated runners, but without intending to I caught him up by Mile 2 and stayed with him to Mile 7 when I latched on to a slightly faster runner who was pacing her friend.
This worked well. I stayed with them to the end (when I said thanks and explained, in case they thought I’d been stalking them – they were delighted to have helped) and finished in 2:17:03, almost three minutes faster than at Leamington and a whole 11.5mins faster than the Great North Run. I even finished in the top half.
The course was more interesting than the GNR, being a mix of A roads, park tracks, and a motorway slip road, ending in Glasgow Green where I ran past noisy crowds and the 2014 Commonwealth Games sculpture to be reunited with Matchgirl and learn about her interesting morning. Good medal (although I’ve no idea which is front and back) and shirt, average goody bag. Matchgirl appreciated the medicinal Smarties.
I ran the whole way, only six days after my 19.3-mile final long run (which feels like it happened a month ago). The final full mile, alongside the Clyde, was my second fastest of the day – a bit of a surprise because it had felt such a slog. So prospects for Yorkshire are good. But I’ll stick with my 1mile/1min run/walk plan.
Would I do it again? Yes, although there may be some tough decisions next year: it’s the same day as the Loch Ness Marathon and only two weeks before the Yorkshire Marathon. Meanwhile, it’s back to training tomorrow and River Ness 10k in six days. No rest just yet, nor race photos. Maybe tomorrow.
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