(My thanks go to Mark Williams and the website roadrunpics.com for the photos used in this article).
So far, I am attempting to bring my recent racing experiences up to date. I hope in due course to give a general summary of my athletics career up to now to show how I arrived at the point I currently find myself at. My involvement in the sport began at the age of 10. Fear not, it will strictly be a summary but I hope you find it entertaining and informative in equal measure. For now, I am content to drop in general hints of heroics of yesteryear to my race reports.
So far, I am attempting to bring my recent racing experiences up to date. I hope in due course to give a general summary of my athletics career up to now to show how I arrived at the point I currently find myself at. My involvement in the sport began at the age of 10. Fear not, it will strictly be a summary but I hope you find it entertaining and informative in equal measure. For now, I am content to drop in general hints of heroics of yesteryear to my race reports.
With another solid week of training at my back after Millport and in a good frame of mind after seeing Queen's Park beat East Stirlingshire 2-0 at Hampden the day before, I headed to Stirling in a positive frame of mind. Only if you are a Queen's Park supporter can you appreciate the significance of a victory. You do not see many. This one was the first time I had seen Queen's win in the flesh for 5 months. Cause for celebration had I not been persuaded by Cambuslang captain Jamie Reid to include the Scottish 10k Championships in my racing schedule.
I had been to the race venue twice before, to see Queen's lose a cup tie 4-0 when I was 16 then win a league match 3-0 in December 2008. I got to Stirling no problem when the problems started. I sought some reassurance from some locals I was in the correct vicinity. Only one person out of 4 could tell me where Forthbank Stadium was. Clearly not many of the residents are Stirling Albion diehards. Finally finding the out of town venue, I was directed to park in Morrisons. Forthbank car park full? I bet that hasn't happened too often during Stirling Albion's time there. By the time I parked I only had 25 minutes to cross the road to the race start. No problem if it hadn't also been raining.
I grabbed my gear and ran over. That was the warm up taken care of. I then did some stretching while wondering where to leave my clothing during the race. My prayers were promptly answered when I met club mate and occasional training partner Kirsty Grant and her fiance Mark Williams who very kindly offered to take my stuff for me. Following a chat with them it was time to convene on the start line where I met fellow Cambuslang members Robert Gilroy, Jamie Reid, Chris Wilson and Joe Kealey who breathed a collective sigh of relief I had turned up. They hadn't seen me at all before this.
At 10.15am, we set off on what I was assured is the fastest 10km race in Scotland. To my amazement, I found myself in the lead group with (bear with me on these names) Tsegezeab Woldemichael, Tewoldeberhan Mengisteab, Tsegai Tewelde, Robert Russell and Andrew Douglas. I thought to myself "I feel relaxed here. Either I'm having a blinder or these guys are jogging." Completing the first 3km in under 9 minutes told me the first answer was the most likely. I was even running at the front. I had never been as close to the Eritreans as this before. I had never even lead an Eritrean before. Breathing down my neck from behind were Paul Sorrie and Michael Gillespie, both of Shettleston. I couldn't let things slip.
I gradually fell back from the leaders but I was continuing to work hard and stretch my legs when the course allowed. I went through 5km in 15:14. This was 11 seconds faster than my 5km road PB. Was this me? The watch wasn't lying. Just after halfway, the course turned back to head to the finish albeit in a slightly different direction. This allowed me to see the chasing pack behind. I got a glimpse of how close Sorrie and Gillespie were. "Don't let it slip, what a breakthrough this could be" were the thoughts in the mind. For someone whos first 10k in September 2000 took them 45 minutes, this was incredible.
The further I went, the more it became a psychological battle to keep going. Michael Gillespie passed me between 7km and 8km. I attempted to keep it close with him which would also help me maintain a gap from Paul Sorrie. This tactic is illustrated in action below.
We continued the battle, past Frankie and Benny's Restaurant, into the finishing straight. The young Shettleston man had too much. However, I was totally elated with 7th and a new PB of 31:12, beating my Clydebank effort of 32:01 in May this year. Woldemichael won in 29:29, 8 seconds clear of his two fellow Africans. This gave Shettleston team gold. Andrew Douglas (29:46) hung in well as did Robert Russell (30:14) and Michael Gillespie clocked 31:02.
Cambuslang were not empty handed, taking team silver medals. Chris Wilson (31:38), Robert Gilroy (31:49), Jamie Reid (32:33), Joe Kealey (33:26) and Brian Campbell (36:17) ensured a team performance to bode well for the months ahead.
While the others regrouped for a warm down, I was feeling a little unwell so decided to wander back out to the course to see Brian and Kirsty finish. Mark, complete with my clothing, spotted me. By the time I had chatted a bit to him, Kirstly came through in a PB of 45:52, a significant improvement for someone who was running 52 minute 10ks only a year ago.
I eventually did an approximate 4 mile warm down from Morrisons into the town centre and back, headed back to East Kilbride, watched the Great North Run then went out that night with the family for an Indian curry and beer to mark my birthday from a few days earlier. Curry and beer will form the topics for future posts.
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