GAA Miler meet and Scottish athletics 3000m Championship

By Stuart McGeachy

The GAA miler meet and 3000m championships took place on Friday 4th January at the Emirates stadium in Glasgow. It was my first indoor event and only my second official 3000m race, so it's fair to say the nerves were jangling! To top it off professional athletes Eilidh Doyle and Laura Muir were competing on the same evening in other races, so it was a big event with a healthy crowd. It was good to see some familiar faces with Jennifer Martin, Drew Dutton and Gregor Campbell travelling up fae the toon to compete so always good for company in the warm up and support during the run. In addition the 'coach' Graham Crawford was spectating to support Gregor, so it always good to get a chat before the run,

The format of the races are runners are put in heats with similar paced runners with a pacer pacing the runners with a specific lap pace. Jennifer was up first and had a stormer of a run which was paced well and finishing top female runner, fourth overall. It was a PB time of 10:50 and more to come later in the year.

I was in the same heat as Drew, which was similar to the same 3000m race we run at Scotstoun last summer. Unfortunately Drew was loaded with the cold which had got into his chest of the holidays so wasn't really in any fit state to compete. As usual he gave it a blast, against our advice, but had to pull out after 6 laps as issues breathing in the dry air made running impossible.

I had a good race and ran stronger than I thought and hung onto third place in 09:19, which was PB. Not bad considering all the keech eaten and weight gained over the holidays!

Gregor was on the Heat after us, which the pacer had set for predicted finishing time of 9:00. I spoke to Gregor before the race and he thought he could get under 9 mins...and who would argue with the recent West district XC champ and in great form. Gregor set off well in his heat and was looking comfy on the first few laps, but disaster struck about 6 laps in where one of his racing spikes came off and had to pull out. He later confirmed he was clipped at the start and shoe wasn't sitting on his foot correctly, so only a matter of time before it came off. Gregor was given a second chance in the next heat where the organisers fitted him in the race paced for sub 8:45. Unfortunately the two races were close together and first heat knocked a bit out of the legs and he finished in 9:39. A solid time but no doubt he'd have been pushing 9 min or below if fresh given recent form.

A great event and would thoroughly recommend the experience. Click here for full results.