Men#s Health 10k

As is now becoming a bit of a fixture in a few of the Harriers diaries (except for me having an incredibly lazy spell last year!), five of us (6 as we found out at the end) headed in to Glasgow bright and early on Sunday morning for the Men’s Health 10k.

Myself, Stephen Phimister, Mark Saez, Graham Ramage, Andrew J Buchanan and Paul Rooney along with 2000 odd other runners took the starters orders at 10am and among the fanfare of Radio Clyde and all the usual gubbins of a big event we were on our way.

Individually we all had our own plan, me to stick as close to Phimi as I could manage, Phimi to aim for 41 minutes, Mark to build on his recent 5k time trial, Andy to see how good a time he could manage and similarly Graham looking for a good steady run.

This year’s route was slightly altered in that once we had set off from the Riverside Museum of Transport and along the road we ran through the car park of the SECC as we headed east. Somebody needs to tell them that some new tarmac wouldn’t go amiss, some of it resembled trail running! From there we continued East and over the Bells Bridge on to the South Side before coming back over the Clyde on the KGv bridge and on up to Argyle Street before making a left on to Buchanan Street followed by a right on to St. Vincent’s St. before heading through the Merchant City and back across the Clyde, eventually turning in to Glasgow Green. From there we headed back in to the Merchant City, weaving in and out of numerous streets before eventually making a sharp right followed by a sharp left to the finishing line on George Square.

As was the plan, Andrew and Mark set off at a pace whilst me and Phimi set a very consistent pace, actually running 4 miles at exactly the same the splits of 6.37 m/m. At about 4 miles I managed to pull a couple of yards on Stevie and felt like I was going well but as was the case 2 years ago when I got to 5 miles I began to tire and the pace started to dip – giving Stevie the chance to close up the gap.  As we ran in to the Merchant city we were shoulder to shoulder and just at the final turn I had to concede the place, just about managing a sprint to the line. In the end Stevie was two seconds over the line ahead of me – a fair result given recent training.

Once over the line and as we re-grouped it seemed everyone was satisfied with their performance, here’s the times;

Andrew Buchanan 44th         38.24
Mark Saez 49th        38.35 11th in age category
Stephen Phimister 117th 41.17 13th “ “ “
Martin Howell         120th 41.19 15th  “ “ “
Graham Ramage 484th 46.47 58th “ “ “
Paul Rooney 636th 48.24

Stuart Gibson triumphed overall completing the course in 31.41

Having collected our goodie bags and conducted all the post race backslapping with other people we met we decided to set off (on foot) for a jog back to the Transport Museum. What a great idea! However we managed it and it was made worthwhile with some tea and cakes.

Overall the consensus of opinion was that this is a well-organised event, run on a very flat and quick course but perhaps a bit pricy.

Martin