Great Scottish Run Reflections

Photo courtesy of Ian Goudie.

 

I'm slightly late with these reflections but circumstances intervened preventing me from putting this down sooner. At the beginning of October, I raced the Great Scottish Run, my first half marathon race for over 5 years. For the record, I finished 19th overall in a new personal best of 1:09:03. I also unwittingly featured heavily in BBC's coverage due to my close proximity to the leading women for 5-6 miles before the leading two duly dispatched of me in Pollok Park. Such exploits rendered me too sore to do much running the following night so a 20 minute jog was followed by a swim. I also reflected on the following "milestones" reached during the race:-

 

1. A half marathon personal best by 4 and a half minutes. My best time was set in my previous half marathon, the Chris Moon Half Marathon in 2009 organised by Strathaven Striders. Since that, to date, has been the only running of that particular race, I'm currently the only person ever to have won it.

 2. First ever Glasgow Half Marathon.

 3. First ever mention by name on TV having been name checked by Brendan Foster. Surprisingly Paula Radcliffe, who was sitting next to Foster on commentary duty and I've met before, never mentioned me at all.

 4. First defeat to a woman since 2008. I've thought hard about this and worked out that the last lady I had lost to in a race was Toni McIntosh (Ayr Seaforth) in the 2008 Isle of Arran Half Marathon. I did however come perilously close to a beating by the winning lady in the Dublin Marathon who was no doubt catching me stride for stride. If you don't believe me, read my write up.

 5. First defeat to two women in quite some time. I also thought hard about this but couldn't remember when it last happened.

 6. Second Cambuslang finisher. Robert Gilroy ran an outstanding race for 10th place with 1:07:12 and the poor guy didn't appear or get mentioned once.

 7. Second time I've run at the same event as a family member with my uncle doing the 10k. Prior to that, my Dad and I had both run the Glasgow University Road Race in 2003.

 8. Biggest support in a race. Having your surname and club clearly visible seemed to help in this respect. I was grateful for the encouragement.

 

The moral of the story? If you want to be on TV at a mass participation race, run with the elite women.