Scottish West District Cross Country Relay Championships, Rouken Glen Park

These championships took place at Rouken Glen Park in the leafy Glasgow suburb of Giffnock. It's an easy enough place to get to from East Kilbride. Even I can drive there without getting lost. Conditions were dry if a little chilly, alright for some good racing.

 

The build up was less hectic with no Irish visitors to pick up. I turned up to find a fairly firm 2 lap 4km course in wait.

 

This week's race had an earlier start time of 1.30pm so, being on last leg again, it would feel like less of a wait. A lot of Cambuslang's recognisable names had turned up for this, meaning that even though I was named in the first team, I knew there were more than a few of us capable of bettering each other. The first 3 teams could have been picked by drawing lots as the results eventually showed.

 

I enjoyed making acquaintance with a couple of those aforementioned recognisable names. These included Steven Wylie whose name was well known to me but I had never actually met. He competed at my first 2 races for Cambuslang, the Scottish 6 Stage Road Relay and Tom Scott 10 Mile Road Race in early 2009. At neither did the opportunity to speak arose. He had noted my own progress and we reached some common ground on training, that there are no big secrets- hard work and consistency can take you a long way.

 

The junior boys and girls and senior women having run, the men set off. The two lap route affords the chance to see a good chunk of the action. There was only one change to the first team, Iain Reid replacing the absent Ian Munro. The order was Stewart Orr, Robert Gilroy, Iain Reid and myself. It was tight at the front between a few clubs, including our first, second and third teams. In an enthralling battle, Inverclyde's Andrew Douglas battled with one of two Shettleston Eritreans competing, Amanuel Hagos, only narrowing being edged out of the lead. Inverclyde's Scottish internationals Craig Ruddy and Mark Pollard helped keep Inverclyde narrowly in pole position. We were maintaining 3 teams in the top 10. On third leg, Iain Reid kept us 4th, a returning to form 30 year old Joe Kealey had the second team 5th and my fellow solicitor Brian Campbell kept the third team in 8th.

 

I had been saddened at the beginning of the week to hear about the death of Sir Norman Wisdom at the age of 95. I had loved his films, such as On The Beat, Up In The World, A Stitch In Time, Trouble In Store  and The Early Bird, as a child. It was quite apt that when I fished in my back pack for my gloves (I was feeling the cold), I found that I had not brought a matching pair! One of them fully covered my hands. The other left my fingers exposed to the cold. Probably the sort of thing Sir Norman's characters would do in his films. Undeterred, I wore them anyway.

I set off on fourth leg with a similar plan to the week before. Unfortunately I was in a bit of a no mans land around a minute behind Kilbarchan in third with a similar lead over the 5th placed club, our B team as it happened which had the pacy Jack Hamilton on anchor leg. There were now some muddier stretches, I found one or two tight corners and had to duck to avoid some low tree branches. I was pushing hard. The photo below shows me on the first lap overtaking some third leg athletes.

I didn't feel comfortable at any stage. This actually pleases me in a race because I feel if you are comfortable you are not trying hard enough. However, it was difficult to judge how I was doing when I couldn't see the teams in front. I took it, having not been caught by anyone, I was faring alright. The encouragement round the route equalled the week before. I kept battling in the second lap, up the slight incline past the park pavilion to the finish. The next photo gives away the fact I was wearing odd gloves since you can just make out my bare thumb on my right hand. My facial expression here is a bit scarier than the first lap.

My time was 13:56 which was equal 7th amongst the Cambuslang runners but only 15 seconds from being the quickest. It was also 22nd fastest overall out of 227 runners. I suppose it says something about my progress over the last 2 years that I initially felt a little deflated with a performance I would have been raving about in 2008. I'm actually comparing my result with runners like former Scottish Cross Country Champion Mark Pollard and feeling disappointed I have not got closer. I suppose on last leg you are getting the course at its worst when a couple of hundred others have traipsed over it. There is definitely renewed competition among the Cambuslang under 20 and senior men, just the way it should be.

Next race outing for me is the National Cross Country Relay at Cumbernauld on 23rd October. Myself and my odd gloves are anticipating it already.

 

A Team:
Stewart Orr        13:41
Robert Gilroy    13:41
Iain Reid            13:56
Stuart Gibson    13:56

B Team:
Bobby Bristow    14:10
Jamie Reid            13:54
Joe Kealey            14:11
Jack Hamilton      13:51

C Team:
Steven Wylie        13:43
Ian McCorquodale 13:51
Brian Campbell    15:42
Andy Coulter       14:50

D Team:
Al Campbell        15:02
Tam McPake       17:26
D Fairweather     19:04
John McPake      16:58

Vets:
Greg Hastie        14:42
Colin Feechan   15:49
Frank Hurley     15:54
Mick O'Hagan   15:25

Some overall positions:
1) Inverclyde 53:03
2) Shettleston 53:51
3) Kilbarchan 54:30
4) Cambuslang A 55:14
5) Cambuslang B 56:06
6) Giffnock 57:48
7) Victoria Park 57:51
8) Cambuslang C 58:06
9) Kilbarchan B 58:14
10) Bella RR - possible mistake
17) Cambuslang Vets - 61:50
19) Garscube 2nd Vets team - 61:55
22) Shettleston 3rd Vets team - 62:22
39) Cambuslang D 68:30