Great Scottish Run 2019

By Elaine McGeachy

30,000 runners, including a good representation of CRC, ran the streets of Glasgow in Scotland’s biggest mass participation event on Sunday 29th September. Some excellent times and PB’s achieved – well done everyone! A huge congratulations must go to Kenny Campbell who got on the podium with a 1.11 superb time. Kenny deserves this success after returning from injury and working extremely hard to get these results.

Although a crowded course, this day is normally one of my favourite days of the year – a fantastic race that never fails to inspire, with people from all walks of life, all shapes and sizes for a variety of motives. It’s a pretty special course too - running over the Kingston Bridge, Glasgow landmarks such as the squinty bridge and the incredible atmosphere with the normally busy streets lined with supporters cheering you on to the finish line. This was not one of those days.

The atmosphere at the beginning was palpable in George Square and I really began regretting 2 mars bars a day every day since the Glen Scotia Marathon and wished I’d put in a bit more effort into training. I’ve had a rubbish year with injury and illness (excuses, I know!) and knew anywhere near a PB wasn’t going to be possible or realistic. Nonetheless, I wanted to give it a hard effort and see where I was. The first few miles were enjoyable as normal, settling in at just under 7.45 min miles, slower than where I’d like to be but a bit faster than I really could maintain to be honest. Therefore, when we turned after 5k to go up the first incline, already I was starting to feel it. I pulled back and slowed down. I very rarely look at my garmin in a race but found myself looking every mile – each mile reminding me I was getting slower and closer to my marathon pace than half marathon!

Pollok Park also gave me a few more life lessons to remember. No 1 - Don’t eat a pile of pasta at 9pm followed by tiramasu or you get a really annoying, painful stitch. No 2 – if you don’t train on hills don’t expect to be good on them.

Once back on Paisley Road West I just wanted to get to the finish. The Big Fla, Garry, Kenny, Stewart, Alan and Jimmy would’ve been finished by now so nearly there! Surely I could push on to potentially even get a sub 1.50 by this moment in time, I’d be delighted with. Then I heard “come on Campbeltown, keep going”. I turned to see who they were cheering and it was Stuart! He was walking on the pavement, head down. I wanted to stop too but instead I shouted to him to join me. I wanted to give up so much but I knew I’d be more annoyed if I did so I pushed on. Grateful that Stuart wasn’t injured, just tired, gubbed and head not in the game today he started to pace me and got me to the finish line in 1.47. I couldn’t have done that without him. It wasn’t my best performance but after everything this year I was happy with a solid run and just 3 mins off last year. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t raging at the Big Fla, I was. Well, more disappointed for him – I knew he could PB and I knew he loved this race. Sometimes it just doesn’t happen on race day but we have to learn from it and push on. This race might not have been as enjoyable as normal for us but it’s motivated us to get back on our game.

Oh and I beat the Big Fla ;-0

Results of everyone below – well done all!

10k

DREW DUTTON 18 00:34:09

DARREN RENTON 337 00:43:53

SUSAN TURNER 594 00:46:37

SUSAN GRAHAM 2245 00:55:57

KERRY O'MAY 2412 00:56:38

IAIN MCGOUGAN 6209 01:29:14

JENNIFER MARTIN 131 00:39:26

Half marathon

GARRY MUIR 77 01:16:15

ALAN ANDERSON 437 01:29:38

JIMMY ANDERSON 714 01:34:26

STEWART IRELAND 718 01:34:27

ELAINE MCGEACHY 2104 01:47:26

STUART MCGEACHY 2264 01:48:40

KENNY CAMPBELL 34 01:11:24