Glasgow Miler Meeting, 3rd June 2016

Photo courtesy of Colin Stephen.

At a time of bereavement, keeping busy is probably a good thing. On the week after Watford I had entered a couple of races, again arranged when family circumstances were a little better. Again, the word from my parents was to press ahead. My Gran had always told me to do things and not worry about her. This tended to come out when I visited her on my own, often on a Sunday to take the strain off my Mum. Best to respect her wishes. On her better days we spent afternoons with chats like that. Happily the last time I did a solo visit was a good day so at least my lasting memory is a happy one.

Next up was a Friday night outing over 3000m at Crownpoint, scene of my Scottish 10,000m silver medal triumph. The 5000m at Watford had been a draining race so I stuck to light training leading up to the 3000m. 2 sets of 4 x 200m in times of 29-30 seconds the night before suggested I may produce something acceptable. I still however felt nervous. It was a strong field of 19 runners and I ironically finished in 12th place like Watford the week before. I never felt great at any point and, in the circumstances, was pleased with a time of 8:42.19, only 2 seconds outside my best. Another 10 seconds would have gained me 6 places. The pace had been consistent with 1500m splits of 4:19 and 4:23. The quality of the field no doubt helped me produce the level of performance I did.

Above: almost perfectly synchronised with Ryan Thomson who finished 8th in 8:36.92.

I would be racing again two days later over 5 times the distance. This served as a good turnover of the legs beforehand.

The race results can be found here.