Frustrated at having pre-entered 3 races this year- Alsager 5, West District 1500m and Scottish 5k Road Race Championships- then not actually run them, I felt I needed some more competitive action after the outing at Aberdeen so put in an entry for the Clydebank 10k. It's part of the 4 race Polaroid 10k series and is one of the 3 held on Thursday evenings. Helensburgh and Dumbarton are probably more scenic but a bit too far to get to straight from work so Clydebank it was.
I tend to avoid racing midweek since I can find it hard to get motivated and into "race mode" after a working day. With the UK also experiencing a radical heatwave, that presented another challenge. I focussed on having as stress free day as possible and staying hydrated and left the office as soon after 5pm as I could with the car temperature gauge reading 26 degrees. I know 2 key things about Clydebank- how to get there and how to get home. Amazingly, the journey from Burnside was painless and I arrived an hour and a quarter before the start.
I felt quite nervous about this race and, apart from saying hello to anyone I recognised, kept to myself trying to get into the "race mode" I mentioned earlier. On the hottest day in Scotland for 3 years, I stayed in the shade where possible and actually poured water over my head and shoulders before the start. It did Charlie Spedding no harm before the Olympic Marathon in Los Angeles in 1984. Clydebank in 2012, to me, called for something similar. I lined up on the start line wringing wet.
I was familiar with the course from previous visits and set off on the coat tails of a group comprising Tewoldeberhan Mengisteab, Amanuel Hagos, Luke Traynor and Paul Sorrie with Michael Deason, Stephen Wylie and others on my tail. The course includes 2 laps of a circuit comprising an industrial estate and the Forth and Clyde canal path. I tried not to be a slave to my stop watch, judging my performance on who was around me. Traynor was having a real go, leading out the 2 Eritreans while Sorrie (racing again after an operation) fell back to me gradually before I pulled clear between 2km and 3km. For a moment one of the Eritreans came back but had a glance back at me and worked his way towards his countryman and Traynor.
After the first circuit, I lay 4th with Mengisteab, Hagos and Traynor ahead and, judging from shouts by spectators (and confirmed by photos afterwards), Michael Deason chasing me hard. I went through 5km in 15:31. Yip, that's okay. Through the industrial estate a second time, Traynor was starting to tail off the leaders. I felt he was catchable but on such a hot night focussed on doing it gradually by maintaining pace instead of surging. On the canal, between 6km and 7km, I pulled alongside him then, with one brief turn of pace, edged ahead and glanced at the 2 Africans ahead. One problem with the course was the leading runners lap some of the field. The course became very congested resulting in a bit of weaving through and, for a spell, I lost sight of the runners I was chasing. Eventually, we turned off for the finish from which I saw Mengisteab had pulled away from Hagos. I was sweating buckets. I made a renewed effort to catch up and, while closing down Hagos, could only hold Mengisteab. I was holding off Deason and Traynor as much as chasing the 2 ahead.
I held on to finish 3rd in 31:35 (1st 5km- 15:31, 2nd 5km- 16:04), an extremely pleasing performance in difficult conditions, 33 seconds adrift of Mengisteab and 5 seconds behind Hagos. Deason finished in 31:48 and Traynor finished a brave challenge 5th in 32:12. I was summoned for a photograph by the sponsors with Mengisteab and Hagos then chatted to various folk, Stephen Wylie, Martin McLaughlin, Dave Thom and 2 old university friends, Michael Pugh and Kevin Farmer. I had won individual and team prizes but felt extremely tired and, instead of waiting for the presentation at 9pm wanted home before it got too late to eat. Prizes get posted don't they? I'd had a sausage supper on the Sunday after Aberdeen and, the following night, treated myself to a single sausage after the run with Calderglen at Chatelherault. Another sausage supper, a 3rd chippie in the same week, is probably 3 too many.
Cambuslang Results
768 finishers
3rd: Stuart Gibson, 31:35
6th: Stephen Wylie, 33:08, 1st vet over 40
9th: Martin McLaughlin, 34:16
14th: Duncan Cochrane, 35:15
29th: Dave Thom, 36:18, 1st vet over 50
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