Falkirk parkrun

The national cross country championships are coming up this weekend.  These take place at Callendar Park in Falkirk, so the weekend before last I decided to do some parkrun tourism and head across to Falkirk parkrun, which also takes place at Callendar Park, allowing me to scope out the cross country course in advance.

Storm Erik was still in full flow as I picked up Alan and we made our way across to Falkirk.  I’d thought about checking the facebook page in advance, but it slipped my mind, which was ultimately unfortunate as on getting there we found that the road we’d chosen to get in to the park was closed for resurfacing.  Nevertheless we parked up and ran the 1k or so that remained into the park, before running what ended up being the first bit of the parkrun as a bit of a warm up.  The first timer briefing clarified the course for us, and we made our way to the start with everyone else.

The course starts with a short section across the grass, followed by around 0.5k on a wide, flat tarmac path.  A right turn takes you onto a hard-packed gravel type path with another right turn taking you into a fairly long and at times relatively steep climb up to the top, before a largely flat and straight section through the trees along to the top corner of the park.  You then turn with a good downhill section, during which you briefly leave the park before coming back in and around to the major climb in the route, which is referred to as “heartbreak hill”.  The hill takes you back up to the path through the trees, where you turn back the way you originally came and head back down the hill, round to the tarmac again and finish back where you started on the grass.

I was planning a long run the following day and wanted to push that run a bit, so was aiming to take the parkrun fairly easy.  On starting, a few guys took the lead but that only lasted until the end of the grass when, without intending to be, I found myself out front, and from there I didn’t look back.  I wasn’t really pushing, but I still built up a fair lead quite quickly.  The start of the trail section had a massive puddle, with no option but to go right through – luckily if you hit these things hard enough your shoes don’t actually get that wet.

I carried on round and up the hill, and was now running very much on my own and continuing to pace myself.  There was a marshal stationed at what was the top of heartbreak hill but I chose not to look down it just so I didn’t know how bad it was until I got there.  Because of the weather, I was fairly layered up and had chosen to run in what I refer to as my “boil in the bag” running jacket – because that’s what it feels like it does to you.  In the section through the trees, sheltered from the wind, I started to overheat a bit so the sleeves were rolled up and the top part of the jacket unzipped for some cooling airflow.

After a while I began to wonder if I’d missed a turn somewhere – a long time had gone by since the last marshal, and with no other runners nearby I had no idea if I was still going the right way.  However, the briefing said there was a hairpin turn somewhere and I hadn’t come across that yet so just assumed I was on the right track.  Eventually the next marshal came into view and I went round the hairpin and started down hill, letting the pace build to gain some nice free time.  Out the park and back in, over a little bridge before the path started to rise gradually heading towards the hill.  At this point I took my buff off too, as I was still heating up.

The next marshal said “wow” as I went past, which I took to be an expression of the gap that I had, which meant I was fairly happy chilling out going up the hill.  It is a tough climb, going on for a few hundred metres and getting progressively steeper – the pace definitely drops significantly, but you do have the knowledge that after the hill it is pretty much downhill all the way to the finish, so this keeps you going.  Over the top of the hill, and I let the pace go again to take advantage of the downhill, back past the very enthusiastic marshal at the bottom and through the big puddle again.  At this point I was happy I had a healthy lead, as the route back to the finish was into the wind, and it was hard going.  I slowed right down for the final few hundred metres, but still managed my first parkrun first place of the year.  I really enjoyed Falkirk, and will definitely be back.

After finishing, Alan took us round the cross country route so we could see what it was like.  I’m glad we did this – at around 1k you come to a very tough hill and if you didn’t know it was there, it would be very easy to go off far too fast at the start and blow the race before it really begins.  We have to do that hill 3 times during the cross country, which I’m not especially looking forward to!  There are a few other difficult climbs through the route, so it promises to be a challenging event, especially given the recent rain which means it’s going to be very muddy!

Scottish Veteran Harriers Relay

On 27^th January I took part in my first race as a Cambuslang Harrier.  Having turned 35 earlier in the month, I was old enough to participate in the veteran’s relay race organised by the Scottish Veteran Harriers Club.  To be classed as a veteran at only 35 is interesting, but I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to be part of the team.  I was given the first leg in the Cambuslang men’s B team.

The relay takes place at Strathclyde park, with each leg (there are 4 in total) taking in a full lap round the loch.  The weather on the day wasn’t ideal, with cold temperatures exacerbated by very strong winds.  Being one of the first races of the year, it was popular, with a lot of teams taking part and most of the big name clubs were there in force.  Clearly, the race was going to be competitive, but the atmosphere was friendly.  The first leg runners took to the starting line – the early stages were all going to be about positioning given there isn’t much space on the paths around the park, and there were other park users out as well.

The race started and it was fairly frantic for the first few seconds as everyone jostled for position.  I heard someone should “come on Iain McDonald, you should be much further up than this” but had no idea who it was until the finish, when I bumped into my ex-colleague Alan who was running for his club, Lothian.  The first 1.5k or so of the race was into the fairly brutal headwind, which made progress difficult.  I was managing to stick with the leading pack, having got myself into the top 10, but I probably pushed a bit too hard in that first section and paid for it later on.

Once at the top of the loch, there was some respite from the wind but round the top and down the other side there is a lot more shelter so we didn’t get the benefit of the tailwind.  As I mentioned, there were other park users out and about – lots of them in fact – and they were not especially keen on keeping out of the way.  In fact I would say they were often being deliberately difficult about it – there really was no need, but you had families out with kids and dogs everywhere with no attempt being made to be reasonable and try to stay to one side.  I’m not saying the runners should have had right of way – far from it – but everyone needs to be reasonable and the behaviour and lack of consideration shown by some pedestrians, who can clearly see a bunch of runners approaching at speed and simply stand their ground even when there’s nowhere for the runners to go, sometimes beggars belief.

Anyway, mini-rant over.  Once through that section into the wind, I started to feel the effects of lots of miles in the legs from marathon training and the energy that running into the wind had taken out of me.  The leading group had pulled away, but I was still passing some who had set off a bit too quick and weren’t able to hang on, and I was just about staying in touch.

The section on the far side of the loch is a bit of a rollercoaster with a few undulations to contend with – these really take it out of you in a race like that where you really are running flat out.  After around 4k my legs were done in and I was working hard just to keep the pace going but the next section went by quickly, as I was duelling it out with someone from Cumbernauld AAC.  The final section of the run was back into the wind and turning back into it was like hitting a brick wall.  The last half a k or so was a real challenge – you are tired by that point and just keeping going to the line felt like pushing a sprint finish.

I crossed the line with a time for that leg of 20.29, which put our B team in 7^th position at the handover, and would actually have been good enough for me to be in the A team on the day.  My first attempt at Strathclyde parkrun just over 2 years earlier on a much nicer day was a time of 22.25 – so I’m 2 minutes faster, doing an extra kilometre with a chunk into a strong wind, which isn’t a bad measure of progress…

It was now a case of hanging around and waiting to the finish.  I was able to catch up with Alan and various others, but standing around in that wind was fairly brutal and it was impossible to stay warm.  The Cambuslang A team won the event overall fairly comfortably, and we were also the first B team, finishing ahead of a number of the A teams from other clubs – a good result!

After the race I went for a long-ish run to try and build marathon miles.  My legs were frozen from over an hour standing around, and I kept on the several layers that I was wearing because it was unlikely I was going to warm up.  I aimed to try and make sure I was running into the wind as little as possible, but I did at one point manage to be running with the wind for a while.  It is fairly unusual to feel the benefit of a tailwind but this time it was so strong I was actually being pushed along right the way down that side of the loch!  I still had issues with pedestrians refusing to be reasonable so spent the run getting progressively more and more angry with their behaviour – it takes nothing to simply step to the side or to make sure you and your dog aren’t at opposite sides of the path, with a lead across the middle.  People need to learn some manners.

Overall, the relay was a good event with a great atmosphere – very friendly but also competitive, and it was great to be a part of the Cambuslang team and for us to perform so well.  The relay was the start of another busy year’s racing – hopefully it will be as successful as last year!