As if one race per week was not enough, Stephen Phimister did the Harriers proud at the gruelling Tour of Clydeside this week, competing in four races in the course of 5 days. This requires not only fitness but a bit of tactical common sense because pace judgement is critical if you are to complete the week.
The first event was on Monday evening, a 5.4 mile (Stephen ran all the races with his Garmin GPS device on, so no doubt about the distances!) trail race at Kilbarchan. The warm conditions made it tough going and Stephen finished in 35:39, struggling in the second half but finishing 13th.
Tuesday was a rest day but on Wednesday the event moved on to Clydebank for a 2.7 mile canal bank race. The wind and rain were more to Stephen's liking and he ran a well paced 16:50 to bring him up to 11th in the overall standings.
Back to the trails on Thursday for a 5.05km multi-terrain race at Dawsholm Park in Glasgow on an undulating muddy trail very similar to our own Calderglen. The conditions were again to Stephen's liking and he gained another position in the series moving up to 10th overall in a time of 21:33.
The final event was the longest, a 10k road race (actually slightly longer than 10k according to the Garmin) around Pollok Park. With no need to hold back, Stephen posted a time of 40:13, an amazing improvement of 1:19 on his pb. This was enough to maintain his 10th position overall in the series and just goes to show how hard training and racing can bring you to a peak. Surely it will not be long before he breaks the 40 minute barrier.
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