Incredibly, this would be my first outing at the West Relay since being part of our gold medal winning team at Kilmarnock in 2012. The following year, I was making one of the biggest mistakes of my running life in Dublin and last year it unfortunately clashed with a weekend away in Durham. The race returned to Hamilton Park Racecourse again after being staged there in 2013. It would be the first time there for me.
I was now 3 weeks into the tweaked training regime. Weather conditions were beyond perfect, no mud, little of what you could call hills, a venue close to home. Things seemed to be in my favour. The only potential fly in the ointment would be any after effects of attending a friend's house warming party the night before though I had kept my alcohol intake to a minimum.
Being allocated 3rd leg, I watched Ryan Thomson put us in an early lead then a returning from injury Ben Hukins pegged back a little to 3rd after facing a thankless task against one of Shettleston's Eritrean duo, Tewoldeberhan Mengisteab and Inverclyde's UK international, Jonny Glen. I had plenty to chase though and even more to hang on to. Within a few hundred metres, I managed to close down and overtake Inverclyde's 3rd man, Mark Pollard, to move into the silver medal position.
I was now 3 weeks into the tweaked training regime. Weather conditions were beyond perfect, no mud, little of what you could call hills, a venue close to home. Things seemed to be in my favour. The only potential fly in the ointment would be any after effects of attending a friend's house warming party the night before though I had kept my alcohol intake to a minimum.
Being allocated 3rd leg, I watched Ryan Thomson put us in an early lead then a returning from injury Ben Hukins pegged back a little to 3rd after facing a thankless task against one of Shettleston's Eritrean duo, Tewoldeberhan Mengisteab and Inverclyde's UK international, Jonny Glen. I had plenty to chase though and even more to hang on to. Within a few hundred metres, I managed to close down and overtake Inverclyde's 3rd man, Mark Pollard, to move into the silver medal position.
Above: giving chase to Shettleston Harriers. Photo courtesy of Scottish Athletics.
Various folk were saying it wasn't "real" cross country due to the absence of mud. However, I've run on courses which didn't suit me many a time and suffered for it so I was in no mood to sympathise with anyone and focused on putting the boot in. There were enough undulations and twists and turns to make the course a challenging one. I appeared to be homing in gradually on Kevin Brydon, on this leg for Shettleston, but as I ran past the grandstand to the finish it seemed that I would probably come up short. From somewhere though I found a little extra and, going round the last bend into the home straight, sprinted past him, ensuring our last runner, Robert Gilroy, took off in the lead. I felt very tired but also very satisfied with a more than welcome strong run.
Robert had suffered with a cold since the previous week's Great Scottish Run Half Marathon but, regardless, showed up and saw it through for the team. He had to concede to Shettleston's new Polish recruit, Kamil Sierecai, and Inverclyde's Craig Ruddy but kept going to secure us bronze medals. I was delighted with this and even more so later to see I recorded the fastest time on 3rd leg and 6th fastest overall. The tweaked training is reaping rewards.
We had a huge turnout of 29 senior men, giving us 7 and a bit teams. Full results can be found on Kilmarnock Harriers' website.
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