In January I succumbed to a bout of influenza after we had returned from Norway. It knocked me for six and I hadn't felt so ill for a very long time. I was bed-ridden for almost three days and the only thing that kept me going was the dot watching of the annual suffer-fest also known as The Spine race. Jasmin Paris was such an inspiration to a sniffling sufferer.
After seventeen days, I managed to don the running gear again and venture out. I had entered the fourth Foxtrail Race on 19th January but the kindly let me defer until the 6th race on 2nd March. I needed to find another race in February to enter. It had to be reasonably short, and I'd prefer a road as I was worried about winter.
Some googling led me to this race and I happily plugged my details into Entry Central. At £9 what could be better? I decided to kill two birds with one stone on my visit to Glasgow by dropping in to the recently saved Fopp store on Byres Road after the race.
I arrived in the car park at the Garscube Sports complex at 10am, picked up my race number and returned to the car to get changed and watch my fellow runners arriving. Unsurprisingly, there were lots of club vests and mostly younger competitors. Eventually I trotted down to the start line on the other side of the Kelvin. The weather was good - dry, fairly calm, overcast about 10degrees.
The start was marked by a line of flour across the road, and with a couple of minutes to go, a man started to shout some instructions. I couldn't hear a thing, but just fitted into the middle of the pack, ready to follow the crowd. Off we trotted, but it felt very busy. Almost like the Cramond Parkrun start and I found it difficult to get into a decent pace.
Not long after the start there was a steepish climb out of the park onto the main road which really came as a surprise and I was puffing a bit. There followed some fast downhill and then a gradual climb along the southern perimeter of the park. There were a lot of fast runners in this race. I tried to settle into a group but we were constantly changing positions.
The route was a double loop of the park perimeter so the 2nd one felt easier as I knew what to expect after each turn. The last few hundred metres were downhill off the main road past the main buildings to the finish line. I was in a bunched finish, clearly several minute after the leaders.
It was a well supported race, and seemed well organised. And very cheap! My only criticism would be the actual route itself - not very picturesque.
00:34:20 87/195
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