I headed down the M77 on Boxing Day as I usually do at this time of year but this time the trip would be a little different from any of the ten previous Turkey Trots I've done in Ayr. For one thing I deviated off route slightly to collect Ruth from Kilmarnock as she was to be my minder for the duration, I don't think Alison would have let me out the door otherwise. The main difference of course was that it would be my first proper 'race', ten weeks and six days after the events at the West District XC.
I don't mind admitting I was a wee bit concerned myself, tossing and turning most of the night before - all part of the recovery process of course, like fitness, confidence in my heart will only come back gradually. On arrival at the seaside, aka the Citadel car park, I was told I could now open a Christmas present which Santa Claus, aka Jim, had left on my doorstep on Christmas Eve with the mysterious instruction 'not to be opened until you see Ruth on Thursday'. If you haven't guessed already they, Ruth and Jim, had arranged, with Russell's co-operation, for me to have a new club vest for my comeback race- nice one guys, thank you from the bottom of my...
Having arrived in plenty of time we stayed in the hall watching a few youngsters running around burning off all their excess festive energy until it was time to brave the cold and go for a warm up run which did seem a bit pointless given the pace I intended running but the importance of both warming up and cooling down has been emphasised constantly by my cardio physio (a sub-2:50 marathon runner himself) so who am I to argue?
After a lot of head-scratching we finally remembered that we last lined up together on a 5k start line at Troon way back on the 5th of January this year on the occasion of Kevin's first-ever parkrun so as well as keeping a close eye on me Ruth would have to take care of herself, being a wee bit rusty over such a short distance.
My 'escort' had instructed me to set the pace and so I tried to replicate the speed I have been doing on the Hairmyres treadmill recently and thought I did so quite well until I checked Garmin much later, see below.
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| Clearly steady isn't yet in my racing vocabulary, some work required |
The wee spike towards the end was the result of a deliberate speeding up to get past one of the afore-mentioned kids who should have kept some of that energy he wasted earlier as we took him down!
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| Boy and (gran?)dad look askance at being overtaken |
I had suggested earlier to Ruth that she shove another kid over the sea wall to keep him out of our way, knowing it would be a soft landing on the other side - she declined for some reason...
As we overtook a couple of ladies dressed head to toe in Christmas gear one spoke to Ruth and it turned out they knew each other from walking their dogs. I was amused to hear the introductions being made using the dog's names as they didn't know each other's!
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| Finn's mum, I believe, on the right |
We came home together in 75th and 76th positions, respectively, in 30.19. I'm not quite sure why Ruth was the leading harrier, maybe she dipped her antlers on the line! It turned out we had run at 9.8 kph, well faster than anything I've done so far and although I've run further this was my longest
continuous distance post-heart attack. Ruth declared herself 'over the moon with that' but I strongly suspect she was being kind as I know she's capable of much faster. The winners were Reuben McDonald in 16.21 with Giffnock North club mate Cameron Green (cheered home by dad Neil) in second place gaining yet another pb, in a time of 16.30 - well done young Mr G. Hannah Terrance of Springburn Harriers was first female in 18.36. There were 116 finishers and 2 dnfs.
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| I completely forgot the cool down as we posed for pictures instead... |
The later 10k was won by Alasdair Campbell of Cambuslang Harriers in 31.43 and Jill Smylie of Giffnock North in 39.06.
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| Ian flying |
Our own Ian Hughes ran 39.40 for 28th place and Russell was 149th in 52.58, there were 235 finishers with 1 dnf.
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| Russell finishing strongly |
Very strangely a David Searle also ran the 10k in 44.42 for 67th place, even my namesake is way faster than me although in my defence he is apparently an MV40. Can I now claim to have run the 5/10k double again? Two David Searils, there's only two David Searles, two...
Earlier we had noticed the touching image of a young lad leading his blind dad through the hall at registration little realising that he would go on to lead him through the race too, lovely.
All pictures are by Kenny Girvan except the one after the race in the car park.
Here's a link to some more pictures from the day
TT2019
