runography

I’ve spent the remainder of the week recovering and now I’m able to give a bit more of a race report. Hope you enjoy.

Pre-race prep was to be an early night, but the only way I could fathom going to sleep early was to have a few beers, well it was Saturday night after all. So 4 bottles of bud later and I was ready to kip. I looked out my race gear, attached the race number to my shirt ( it had the chip on the back of it ) and I went to bed, eventually getting to sleep around 12pm. I was woken by the kids at 6:50am, they seem to get up earlier at the weekend! I was initially worried about this, then the more I thought about it the more sense it made. Normally I don’t run until lunchtime, so have been up and awake for a few hours. Todays run was at 10am, so a few hours of being up and awake would probably help.

I got my things organised, put my gear on and left the house at 8:15am to go pick up my brother. I arrived for him at 8:30am and we eventually leave the house and head to Bellahouston Park on Glasgow’s South Side. We park the car just off Nithsdale drive and walk round. We are near the start for around 9:20am and have a look around, for some reason we couldn’t see an Achilles Heal tent, but gave up fairly quickly and decided it was time to do our warmup. Graeme was going to warmup with the crowd but I wanted to stick to my plan of a 10 min jog. We both ended up doing that, starting at 9:35 and finishing at 9:45. It was then time to stretch and get ready to move to the start.

The runners had been split into separate sections so that the faster guys weren’t being held up. Graeme and I both estimated our finish times at 50-54 mins when we signed up, so we were in the Yellow area. I was hoping for a sub-50min run so we went to the front of the yellow runners so we didn’t get caught in the crowed. Graeme had run a 54:45 training 10k the week before and was hoping to do better, perhaps even a 50 min if he could stay with me. So I told him if he wanted, he could pace with me for the first few miles and see how he felt, if he felt fine then stay with me, if not drop back a bit. Since he didn’t train as much I didn’t expect him to be fit enough to sit at my pace. That proved wrong.

The gun goes off and I am now thinking about tying my laces, so before we cross the start line I have had to tie them twice to make sure they won’t come loose.

We get over the start line and we are off, our first 10k race is underway. Lots of other runners surround us but we are fairly quickly up to speed and running through Bellahouston park, concentrating on our own pace and not worrying about other runners is key here. Lots of folk go off far too fast. We exit Bellahouston Park and start to up the pace a little on the wider roads, I have to keep bringing us back down to nearer the 8 min/mi mark, as we were looking at 7:20 for a while. We completed the first mile in 7:58, perfect and a good start. The Garmin is brilliant for setting the pace. Eventually I will be able to do myself over shorter distances, but for this race it’s invaluable at the moment.

Mile 2 and we are coasting along, having a conversation as we go and enjoying the crowds cheering us on. We eventually leave the crowds as we cross over the M77 and head down Dumbreck Road towards Pollok Park. We are still comfortable and still having to keep our speed down, we complete Mile 2 in 7:52 min/mi pace.

The third mile takes us off Dumbreck Road and into Pollok Park, the first time I’ve run in Pollok Park and unknown terrain for me. We head up through the park on some small but longish hills. Nothing too hard here and we are overtaking quite a lot of people on the way up. Still chatting suggests we are well within the zone and we complete the 3rd mile at 7:54 pace. It’s time to start looking at moving up a bit now that we are at the 1/2 way mark so when we cross the 5km marker we bring the pace up to try and do a 7:40, I’m still keeping the pace at this point.

The 4th mile is done in the park and at a pace of 7:38, getting faster and have thankfully left some in reserve. I’m conscious of my run on the Thursday where I died with a stitch and that is worrying me a little. But I’m feeling good and comfortably could complete the remainder at this pace.

The 5th mile takes us back out of Pollok Park and onto Dumbreck road a bit further south than our entry point, we are still doing a good pace here and on for a 7:30ish min/mi, we pass the point we had previously entererd the park we are sitting happily coasting but I’m still thinking not to push to hard yet, still another 1.5 miles to go. I say to Graeme to bring it down a bit as he’s starting to go faster again, but he decides he doesn’t want to and as he was doing around 7:10 min/mi I let him go. I was happy to complete that mile in 7:32 min/mi pace. Graeme was still in sight, but was pulling away slightly as I maintained my speed.

Onto the 6th mile and my pace is increasing, as I start to push for the finish, as I come across the M77 I see Mosspark Boulevard and for some reason think this is close to the end, as the Womens 10k finished there. I quickly remember that it’s still a bit to go and find that we aren’t running along Mosspark Boulevard at all, but are continuing on Dumbreck Road. We finally enter the park and have a mild uphill section to complete. I am picking the pace up again here and start to feel the area that I got the stich becoming slightly aggrevated. I decide to bring it down slightly just incase I can’t make the finish. As I get to the top of the hill I see we have a nice downhill section then a straight and a small uphill to the finish. I ran down the hill very fast, probably sub 7:00 min/mi pace then turned the corner onto the straight. I had completed that mile at 7:23min/mi.

The final section, I have a short straight ahead and I am trying to conserve my energy for the final straight, but a runner goes past me fairly quickly and I decided I am going to give it another push. I ran the flat straight very fast then turned the corner onto the final straight and slight hill. I sprinted the whole length of that hill and about 20meters from the finish line I heard my Mum shouting “Come on Eoan” That gave me a boost, I stuck my arm up and gave a wave and pushed it faster, overtaking lots of people and finishing the final section with an average 6:26 min/mi pace. My fastest over this section had been 4:47 min/mi or thereabouts.

As I was trying to avoid a few of the finishers who had stopped on the line I forgot to press stop on the Garmin, so recorded a time of 48:02, but my official chip time had me finish in 47:54 which I am delighted about.

I met up with Graeme and found out he’d managed a 47:09 but had struggled at the end as he hadn’t banked on the extra downhill and straight section, he thought the top of the hill was near the end. A fantastic time considering he’s only covered the distance once in training I believe. He’s obviously a natural.

Summary:

Splits:

• Mile 1 @ 7:58 min/mi
• Mile 2 @ 7:52 min/mi
• Mile 3 @ 7:54 min/mi
• Mile 4 @ 7:38 min/mi
• Mile 5 @ 7:32 min/mi
• Mile 6 @ 7:23 min/mi
• Last 0.26 @ 6:26 min/mi

What I’d call a perfect Negative Split

Total Distance:

• 6.26 miles  @ average pace of 7:40 min/mi

Time:

• Runography – 47:54
• Graeme – 47:09

And for our next trick, the Great Scottish Run 1/2 marathon in September. I’ll be updating the site with notes on my training schedule for that run. Run On!