Ian Goudie

I’ve decided to train for the Loch Ness Marathon which isbeing held on Sunday 4th October 2009.  I blame Norman Boyle for this moment of madness as he registeredfor the event before I did.  There’s nowa small group of us doing it from Bella RR.

I’ve adopted an 18 week plan which has seen me training forthe last 6 weeks, whilst Norman has gone with a 12 week programme. 

I’ve got into the habit of doing the Glasgow parkrun andrather than give this up for my long runs, I’ve decided to include the run atthe end of my Saturday morning run and use the combined training as my longrun.

This week I had a scheduled 13 mile run and planned to do 10miles plus the parkrun 5k.  I had planned a route leaving from the start of the parkrun in Pollok Park at 8am and returning 10 miles later, before the event start of 9.30am.  However I was a few minutes late in settingoff and my best laid plans were amended when I met running mate Pauline Wright in Barrhead Road after only 2.5 miles. After a chat and sharing some water, I offered to amend my route and we turned around and headed back towards Pollok Park.  We continued past the park, up Cockerhill Road and then along Mosspark Boullevard and around the north perimeter of Pollok Park to Pollockshaws Road, where she headed home and I entered the park at Pollok Avenue.  I ran along the riverside patht o the stables, where I made use of the toilet facilities.  I then ran around Pollok House and back on to the avenue, as I approached the turn off for the Burrell – the parkrun start- Iasked a fellow runner for the time. 9:25 he replied and I realised that I would need to head straight for the start line.  However as I ran over the brow of the hill expecting to see around 200 runners assembled I was met with an empty road.  Maybe he’s got the wrong time I thought for a second before noticing that in the car park down to my right my car had been joined by the pakrunners.  A quick wipe with my towel and a drink of water and the eventstarted from its amended start point.

I took my time wanting to continue my run at the same pace,I ran along congratulating Catriona Gourlay for her recent recognition of Glasgow parkrunner of the month. However her pace was just too slow for me andI started to make my way slowly up through the field.  By the second loop I was struggling and the sweat was pouring off me but I wanted to maintain or increase my pace slightly.  A young man had overtaken me and I decidedto follow his tail.  There were a coupleof other regular runners ahead of us and although they looked to have too largea gap for us to catch, they must have been feeling the pace and we caught themat the final hill.  At the top of the hill I pushed in a little more and overtook the young man in front of me,Stuart McBeath.  I wasn’t sure where the amended finish line would be but presumed it wouldn’t be too far away.  I saw a blue vest in front of me, who looked a bit like Tom Keenan and although I gained some ground on him his strongfinish saw him finishing 3 secs in front, before disappearing into the trees for a pit stop.

I finished in 25:14 and was 95th out of 190 finishers and picked up some more parkrun points.

As I joined Tom and his wife for coffee in the Burrell I asked him if he had finished in 94th spot.  How did you know that ? he asked …because I was just behind you I replied.

Tom Keenan 25:11; Stuart McBeath 25:21; Catriona Gourlay27:07 new PB by 57 secs.

I’m now 16th in the men’s league with some 989 pointsand have completed 16 parkruns.  Only Dan Maher with 21 has completed more than me.