Rouken Glen 10k

Out of the 6 Harriers who took the challenge on to run the Rouken Glen 10k so far no one has come forward to write a report so I thought I would although as I am doing this I am sure one of the other 6 are probably doing the same.
At this time of year when Rouken Glen 10k is on, the weather can be unpredictable however the sun shone and shone last night with my Garmin registering the temperature at 20c.  Running in the hot weather can affect any Scottish runner and has me in the past so I made sure I had my trusty baseball cap, sunglasses and lashings of sun cream.


Even though you’ve promised yourself I will finish work early or sharp you never do and the 7.30pm race start always seems a tight rush to get home, change into your running gear, getting some food/drink and get to Rouken Glen to get your number and chip.  Thankfully I made it nicely just before 7 to get my number and chip, do my warm up and meet up with some of the Harriers and other running friends.

There was some pre-race chat about the route of this year’s race reflecting on last year’s race running that infamous fast & flat hill twice situated next to Deacons Bank Golf course. Even though there was a route map I am never any good at interpreting these so I ran in the knowledge there would plenty of runners in front of me so I won’t get lost.
So on the line up we all did the usual shaking hand Harrier ritual and I was lining up next to my Rouken Glen training partner Frank and my other friend Owen McQuade, who now runs for Bellahouston Roadrunners. After a delayed start we were off with a whimper (no ready steady go).  We ran around the park to pass the Skateboard Park then into the middle path, sharp right leading us back to the start and started to run towards the boating pond.  This initial loop I ran just over 7 minute mile which was too fast so quickly slowed down so I could survive the 10k and also at this point my throat was dry as a bone.  We ran out of the park towards the boating pond and turned to the left of the pond running by the Boat House Cafe up a small incline and down to Davieland Road. From there we ran down onto Rouken Glen Road by the park and turned left up Stewarton Road and turned left into Deacons Bank Golf club car park leading to the infamous steep trail route. At this point John McBride had passed me and was about about 40 secs ahead of me and my training partner Frank was just ahead.  As I started to climb the hill my strength from running Chatelherault kicked in and I comfortable got up and over the hill passing Frank. I held my lead of Frank until Davieland Road where he passed me again. So I didn’t panic and just ran my own pace keeping Frank in sight until we entered the garden centre car park to which was a new part of the race for 2015. We ran to the right of the car park turned left to run by the garden centre and back into the park doing a final 1k by the Pavilion, Skateboard Park round to the start and on the final up-hill central path of 150m to the finish and I was able to up my pace to give a final sprint to the finish passing Frank in the final metres of the course, settling for a time of 47:19 beating Frank by 3 seconds.
First Harrier home was Stephen Phimister in 40:49, followed by Julie Beveridge in 42:54 (2nd in Senior Lady Category), John McBride in 46:32 (5th in the V55 category), Richard Lawton in 47:19 and David Searil in 53:04 and unfortunately Martin Howell was DNF.  Martin reported this on Face book he had no power to run the trail route part of the course and ended up abandoning the race.  This is a good local race and would be good to consider again for the 2016 Grand Prix as it has been a GP race in previous seasons.

Thanks to Eddie for being the photographer along with Russell they both cheered all the Harriers in a crowd of over 430 runners.
Full Results see link: http://www.giffnocknorthrunningfestival.co.uk/. More photos here.
Richard.