XXV Glasgow half marathons

An estimated 22,000 runners set out from George Square on the Great Scottish Run 10k and half marathon on Sunday. Once again the forecasts leading up to the event were much worse than the reality although I'm sure we would all rather have run in Saturday's weather!

Jim Holmes, former harrier David Wardrope and myself lined up on the start line each for our twenty fifth time in this race, myself consecutively since 1993, the other two having started in 1992 but having missed one year since - talk about feeling old, seventy five years participation between us!

The now familiar intentional bottleneck prior to the start line ensured plenty of space for all the runners but despite this I started to struggle on the way up St Vincent Street as my quads tightened and my breathing became ragged. A distinct lack of recent training had clearly taken it's toll and even the sound of a choir singing beautifully (acapella I think) at the top of the hill failed to lift my spirits as I quickly realised I was in for a long, long day. Although I recognised the song Graham had to tell me later it was Danny Wilson's song Mary's Prayer, I could have done with a prayer or two myself!

I won't bore you with the details (yay!) but suffice it to say my arbitrary target of 9 minute miling was out of the window by the time I heard the third piper, at which point I decided to drop my pace and simply run on feel. The rain came and went but fortunately the predicted high winds held off until most of us had finished.

Club results were as follows;

Leading harrier by a mile (or two!) was new/old member Gerry McParland in a cracking time of 1.21.53 for 128th place, followed in by Julie Beveridge finishing 311th overall in a fabulous 1:27:58, 6th in her age group, 19th female and a massive pb to boot! Stephen Phimister came home in 1.33.43 and 25th silver anniversary boy Jim Holmes in 1.39.59. We then had four finishers in the 1:40s - Robert Dewar in 1.42.35, Graham Ramage in 1.43.44, Richard Lawton in 1.47.08 and Sharon Gregg in 1.49.39. I plodded home in 2.03.20, not quite my slowest GSR (2014 was slower, also due to injury), followed very closely by Julie Thomson in 2.03.35, Lorraine Buchanan in a pb time of 2.07.57. and Mark Creasey who came home in 2.08.56. Very well done all.

I guess Graham and I both suffered a little from having other fish to fry, Graham doing 18 miles the week before as part of his Valencia marathon training (as is David) while on the same day I ran/walked 22 miles as part of my attempt to get to the start line of the Glen Ogle 33 early next month.

Ex harriers David Wardrope and Graham Lindsay ran 1.43.27 and 1.51.29 respectively.

Club times in the earlier 10k were

Martin Howell led the way in 41.01 (oh, so close Martin!), John McBride finished in 51.58 and Monica Houston ran 1.01.22
Former harrier and recent Islay half winner Stuart Gibson stormed home in 31.37 to take the win, superbly well done Stuart.

I wonder what Jim, David and myself will be doing on the first Sunday of October 2018? Answers, on a postcard please to...

PS Just found out Joey Shields time was 1.44.30, he was running under a pseudonym!