Great Women’s Glasgow 10k

Post date: Jul 3, 2017 8:46:56 PM

By Katie Ferguson

After my disastrous attempt at MOKrun this year, I decided I would look for another reasonably flat 10k to chase that PB I had been looking for at MOK. The Great Women’s 10k in Glasgow was taking place exactly one week after MOK, I thought this wouldn’t do be any harm to try.

In the week running up to the 10k in Glasgow, I was however spending my time being support team for Doogs who was attempting the West Highland Way on his mountain bike (for the 2nd time) so the training I was doing wasn’t exactly what I would normally do in the week prior to a 10k race and also the amount I was eating was off the Richter scale...but I was on my holidays

Race day nerves were at their worst, will I/won’t I do it? Doogs on the verge of having me sectioned, ordered me out the car on Great Western Road and told me to get on with it!

I sheepishly made my way to Kelvingrove park where the race started and finished. It was a lovely bright morning and probably perfect race conditions.

It didn’t take long for my nerves to disappear when I reached the park, my only panic was, I couldn’t find to loos!! I did however find where my start was and settled into just a wee bit back from the 45 mins pacer. What I was not prepared for though was the emotional minute’s silence before the race started in light of the previous evening’s events in London. This certainly put my worries about the race into perspective!

The first 5k of the race was very fast, all under 7 min miles, which for me is way too fast for a 10k but it felt comfortable at that point so thought I’d go with it. I had been led to believe there were hills on the course so was a bit wary of crashing and burning before I had reached them but was very pleasantly surprised to find out they were just wee inclines, nothing like we’ve got here. The second half of the race consisted of a bit of doubling back on yourself so this seemed to slow my pace plus the weather had become extremely hot so I struggled on the final two miles.

The 10k took runners out through the city where we passed iconic buildings such as Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Glasgow University, the Riverside Museum and the SSE Hydro, crossing the River Clyde via Bell’s Bridge then back over the Clyde Arc as we headed towards the 8k marker.

Before finishing in the scenic surroundings of Kelvingrove Park, we were spurred on by the crowds of spectators, music both at the start and on course and eight official bands on the run.

I remember looking at my watch at 6 miles and it had just turned 43 mins and for one split second I thought, maybe I could get sub 44 but had absolutely nothing left in the tank so my finishing time was 44.21 which is 30 secs off my PB from 8 years ago!