This race is a little out of place in August. Dating back over 60 years, it was traditionally run on the first Saturday of the New Year. Inclement winter weather in recent years has seen postponements and the race appearing on the calendar in March. More bad weather this year saw a second postponement and the race moved to August, less than a year before the next one is due.
At one time, "the Barge" carried some prestige with the best runners in the country competing over the 5 mile course. Police restrictions saw changes to both the route and distance to now give us a 2 lap 10km course.
The weather was totally foul when I woke up on Saturday morning which did nothing for my enthusiasm. I needed a race though so made the trip to Garscube Estate. With a generous team prize on offer, I persuaded a few others from the club to compete with George Pettit, Robert Rossborough, Youssef Ennaoui and Eddie Carr all turning up.
The rain clearly dampened spirits since, despite over 130 pre-entries, only 106 runners lined up, including a number of on the day entries. Around one third of the pre-entries had stayed away. Despite some pre-race nerves, I settled into a good rhythm in the first kilometre round the estate. I already found myself clear so it was apparent I faced a long, solo effort. In a tradition dating to the New Year staging of the race, the leading runner up the first hill won a bottle of whisky. On completing the climb out the estate past Glasgow University Vet School, I had secured one prize. Unfortunately, I'm not a whisky drinker.
The course then goes downhill on the Switchback Road, left alongside the Forth and Clyde Canal, left again down Dawsholm Road, uphill to Maryhill Road, along that back to the estate. That was one lap so do that then repeat. The rain was torrential during the first lap and my clothing stuck to me. As my watch ticked towards 16 minutes at 5km, I knew I wasn't running at my best but resolved to try and push on and run the second lap quicker.
Up by the Vet School, I prepared to push hard down the switchback when problems started. Often a tough effort during a race can mess around with your stomach making you...well, need to bring up whatever you've last eaten. However, only after you've finished. I started feeling this way. Problem was I was still racing and had about 3km to go. I had no option. I stopped, leaned over and coughed but nothing happened. A few strides later, I stopped again for the same thing. This time, I managed to spit. Things seemed to settle down but the scare threw my concentration. From there, I simply nursed myself round the rest of the course, finishing in a well below par 32:44. It was still enough to win. Being a huge fan of steak dinners, the two steaks and steak sausage the night before had maybe not been properly digested by race time. Lesson learned.
George, Robert and Youssef battled hard through the atrocious conditions, completing a clean sweep of the first 4 positions and, naturally, winning us the team prize. An easy one for Maryhill Harriers to work out. George and Robert were also delighted to claim individual prize money in addition to their respective £25 shares of the team pot. Eddie was the unfortunate one to miss being a counter but finished 32nd in a time of 43:25 before cheering on his son in the youngster's 3km race.
The prize money (£125), trophy and bottle of whisky are a nice consolation for the bad race experience and it was good for a few other guys in the club to share the glory. As luck would have it, I drove home in glorious sunshine!
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