Tom Scott 10 Mile Road Race - 3 PB's in 7 Days

Today was my 3rd race in 7 days and an opportunity to beat my last 10 mile pb set in April 2010 doing the Tom Scott Memorial 10 miler at Strathclyde Park.

Even though it was the same race today, Tom Scott Memorial 10 miler, it was a different route.  Due to preparation work at Strathclyde Park for the Commonwealth Games the race orgainsers moved it to the back roads of Carluke with the start & finish at The John Cummings Stadium.

150 runners lined up for the 52nd Tom Scott Memorial Road Race and the other Harriers in the field were Andy Buchanan, Kenny Leinster & John McBride.  The race started off without any hitches with a lap of the track to lead us out of the stadium onto the Carluke back roads.  The weather was cold and windy however I took a leaf out of Jim Mearns book and made sure I was dressed for anything with my trusty vest, girlie gloves and 1 step further with a beanie hat (it was cold!).

Within no time we were facing our first hill and that point we didn’t realise this would be the first of many hills. At this point in the race Andy was the lead Harrier followed closely by Kenny, John and myself. It wasn’t till I was running between the 4 & 5 mile marker that I realised it was out & back course as I saw the race car coming down the other side of the road with Robert Gilroy (Cambuslang Harriers), Twelde Mengisteab (Shettleson Harriers) & Stuart Gibson (Cambuslang Harriers) charging downhill.  At this point I could still see Kenny in sight with John chasing him down and thought the turning point must be near but it seemed to get further away.  Eventually the turning point was in sight near Springfield Fishery in Carluke and Kenny, John and I were all within about 1 minute of each other and said our hellos to each other as we passed one another.  Up to that point the weather was not too bad and once we ran round the marshall acting as the turning point we were hit with gale force winds.

The wind was that strong I was getting blown about and thinking I need to put on weight here to stay steady. So for the next 2 miles I could still see Kenny & John and continued to do my best to make up ground through the horrendous wind. There were some limited sheltered sections to help stride out to pick up the pace but not enough. By the time I got 7 miles John was a good couple of minutes ahead of me at the top of a hill with Kenny out of sight.  At this point it was trying to re-focus with positive thoughts, run my own race and think I have only 3 miles to go which is basically a 5k and I can do this. From the 8 mile marker we were running back into Carluke with a mixture of downhill and flat with less wind.  The last runner I was chasing in was Pauline Wright from Bellahouston Roadrunners who I was slowly catching and hanging in there.  When we got the stadium entrance I was seconds behind and felt really tired but I was thinking about the Al Pacino film “Any Given Sunday” and the speech his character made towards the end of the file with the line “You’ll find out life is just a game of inches” or it my case seconds.  I thought if I am going to get a pb I need to do something now and tried pick up my pace the best I could to just get in touching distance of the Bellahouston Roadrunner and was beaten by a few seconds.  The big question did I get a pb...yes I did by 19 seconds.  My time was 1:19:16.

For the other Harriers out today Andy Buchanan was 1st Harrier home in 1:05:03 followed by Kenny Leinster in 1:15:22 & John McBride in 1:17:02.

So maybe now quite as epic as Seb Coe’s 1979 3 world records in 41 days but for me 3 Pbs in 7 days I am happy.
Richard

Thanks to Richard for a great report and well done on 3 PB's.